Destination DMC
by Renix05
Summary: Mundus is dead, Vergil gone, and Limbo City has been left in ruins from the destruction. Dante swore to he would protect the humans, but how? Where does he even begin? When a man claiming to be of angel birth finds them and takes them in things begin to became "normal", well, sort of. (Summary will be changed, again) DanteXKat (?) A DmC take on the DMC Anime. Contains main OC.
1. Chapter 1: Introductions

_**- CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTIONS - **_

_"The Story of Sparda. A legend really. They say that he fought alongside the demons once, only to turn against them and run away. Why? Sparda was the brother of the great and powerful demon Mundus, second-in-command if you will, to follow Mundus was to secure his position in the Demon World, and thus to secure his position amongst the control of the humans. But why did he turn against him? Why did the Dark Knight Sparda turn against Mundus?_

_For love. Simple really, Beauty and the Beast._

_A demon fell in love with an angel. Sparda fell in love with Eva._

_It was a match that would have never been made. Did God have a hand in this? We never know._

_All we know is that from then on, Sparda had betrayed Mundus; keeping an angel alive, knowing she existed, loving her… All betrayal. _

_Sparda was considered a traitor and hunted continuously by his demonic brothers, creatures of hell are as insidious as they are dim-witted and it took them nearly a decade for them to find Sparda and his wife._

_By then the seeds had already been sown, and even while Sparda was out, his home destroyed and his wife's heart eaten from her chest by Mundus himself, he knew, coming back to the ashes that his revenge was already in place._

_His twin sons, whom he wiped the memories of and sent them to different orphanages, were alive, and were unknown forces to Mundus._

_Even when Sparda was inevitably captured and imprisoned facing a life of torment and pain worse than death. His sons were starting on their journeys, to become the fighters they were meant to be._

_Nephilim, they were called. The only ones who could slay the Demon King."_

* * *

Travelling at night was never the safest option but it had to be done. Zane was never going to get to Limbo city if he stopped half way through the day and wasted time. Patience was wearing thin and with that female news reporter voice repeating over and over in his head the moment he stopped thinking... He shifted to a higher gear and pushed harder on the accelerator, the car lurched forward into its higher speed disregarding the pickup truck it overtook.

Night wasn't safe, even on this highway, in the middle of the desert Zane knew that a demon could come out of nowhere and try to kill him. His fingers wrapped themselves around the steering wheel once more, melodic drumming with his index finger to the song playing on the radio. "Highway to Hell" seemed fitting enough.

Music calmed a little of the nerves and even as the pickup truck starting coming up close to the back of his car Zane didn't feel any better. Driving in groups had been unofficially decided amongst all frequent interstate travellers, with demons suddenly appearing into the world a few months ago picking off individual travellers, you can see why it was decided.

The truck seemed annoyed, Zane could feel it literally inches away from his back bumper and he glanced up in the rear view mirror to have a look. A bearish older man with what looks to be a young adult male in the passenger seat. Without being rude, Zane assumed they were rednecks; the bigoted ones, not those who are uneducated. He was severely tempted to push down on the breaks slightly and piss off the truck driver even more but when he remembered he'd just serviced his own car he stopped.

Looking back to the road he cursed life then and there, all Zane could see was a few metres outside his window, his only light source coming from the solar powered cats-eyes that were to light up all night for travellers. Another unofficial decision was when travelling at night, was to kill all light coming from your car, even though Zane knew that most of the larger demons didn't require a light source to know you're there he still abided by the rules, if anything to keep the humans happy.

The cat-eyes were useful, kept him from running off the road and ruining his car, but the light it gave out was immensely small. Zane realised that the truck behind him was probably so close because he was the only thing the driver could see, humans and their imperfect eyes.

But then again, he could be so close because Zane had overtaken him. He wasn't sure if that was illegal or not in America but it didn't stop him, he needed to get to Limbo City faster than the truck driver was thinking.

Since 14:00 it had been just him and the pair behind him on the road, no stop signs, not petrol stations nothing. Well, if you count the multitude of empty vehicles that dotted to roadside. Zane had taken to counting the number of cars he'd seen, loosing count about 3 hours back when he came across a wreck of a BMW coupe that had been torn in half, the other half was found a couple of miles further up the highway. It was interesting and what had set him on edge, the BMW was the newest car to go through this highway and not reaching its destination meant something was wrong. How did he know about the car? Traffic logs. They've been set at the beginning and end of every road that goes into an urban area, you have to state stupid things like car details, passengers, what you're carrying and where you're going. It's security supposedly and also a way for humans to find out what's happened to people when they don't turn up home one evening or arrive at their grandmothers 84th birthday party.

The BMW was the latest car to pass through here, a 44 year-old, female Afro-American woman who ran an advertising company over in New York. She was the woman who missed her grandmother's 84th birthday party.

Zane didn't pray for her, even as he realised what had happened to her, there was no point to pray for someone who's body served as a meat feast for a demon. He was far more pre-occupied in figuring out what sort of demon had killed her, and done the damage to her car.

So far, all he's figured out is it was one _big_ demon.

There was no way to tell how far off he was from the end of the highway and he hoped it was near. He wasn't in the mood to deal with this constant needling in his back and he was beginning to get a headache from the amount of times he checked his mirrors and squinted in an attempt to try and see better outside.

His headache wasn't helped when the truck driver turned on his lights.

It took a few seconds for Zane to realise what the guy had done, watching as the pickup truck over took him moving at least at 50mph. Zane cursed loudly and slammed on his breaks, no one behind him so crash into, and he put the car in a full on stop. His grip tightened on the steering wheel and he watched as the truck drove, all lights on full, further and further away from him.

"7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.."

His melodic counting was precise and once his timer had struck zero Zane watched as a pure black form crashed into the truck; the vehicle flew nigh on 30 feet into the air and landed at least a hundred yards away on its top. Zane watched as the black form moved over the road and towards the truck, his left hand slowly moved to the switch that would roll down his windows. He stared into the darkness as the window slowly fell and he began to hear the pairs screams from inside the truck.

Seems they didn't pick up the unofficial decision to always carry a fire arm in the vehicle.

There was only one demon, Zane could hear it's feet land on the ground, four legged, his heavy breathing from what he suspected was a shotgun wound to the chest, the lady must've fought back, and the limp in his hind leg, and crashed into it. He thanked whatever god was on his side that night and started the car again, he drove onwards, not even looking as the demon tore into the underside of the truck and plucked the young male from his seat, contrary to the wishes of his father helplessly gripping onto his sons arms as he was pulled away. The demon made quick work of the boy and by the time Zane was half a mile ahead the father joined his son, the car was torn cleanly in half, with one half of it thrown further down the road.

Zane didn't feel guilty or scared, if anything he was pleased, it meant that the creature wasn't going to go after him anymore and he could safely travel for the rest of the his journey. Still, he reached into his glove compartment in the passenger seat and pulled out his sidearm placing it on the dashboard. Fingers loosened around the steering wheel and his radio had finally settled on another old rock song, name he wasn't focused on remembering.

By 22:00 he'd reached Limbo City, its broken sign hanging off two nails telling him as such and welcoming him. He crossed the bridge than ran over the river that more or less ran outside and through the city and reached what he'd assume was the residential area. Simple attached housing blocks than ran in seeming straight roads, grid ironed if he remember his geography classes correctly. Contrary to reports it seemed this area was untouched, the blast of Mundus's explosive death must've not reached this far out. Still, Zane could smell demons in the air.

He drove further on, finding his way slowly through broken roads and empty vehicles, Limbo City was bigger than he remembered. He reached the main road that ran through the city, lined with what used to be huge shopping centres and restaurants of the highest quality, seems they got caught in by Mundus death. Everything else from then on in was either flattened or destroyed. Demons still lingered in the air but now Zane couldn't tell if it was because of Mundus or if there were actually Demons here in the city still. He wouldn't be surprised if the larger ones had cleared out weeks ago to feast on larger populations, the small ones would still hang around though.

His car wheels bumped up against something and the sound from underneath them sounded exactly like he was driving on sand, looking out of his open window he could see the white ash that littered the ground, it was thick and grain like but definitely ashes of some sort.

"Mundus must've died near here then.."

Zane wasn't interested in the demon Kings death, and so turned right at the next crossroads. He'd slowed his car by now, looking outside to see the damage caused. He wasn't really surprised at what he saw, the news reporters in the UK had been all over this for weeks on end and the UN had made sure that everyone knew that they were sending help. Still he couldn't help but be a little at awe.

Ash turned to tar and the building began to looked better, Zane quickly found himself looking at the very few thousands of people that managed to survive the disaster. They were all housing up in the buildings around him, be it business use, home or industry, seems the UN had gathered all the people into one area of the city. Better control in the end.

He passed a few men in blue, originating from Germany, and kept going, slowing down even further as he saw kids play in open areas and on the streets protected by the light of working street lamps, their mothers watched on. A kid stopped by Zane's car and stared, Zane couldn't help but stop.

"Hey, you lost sir?" the kid was probably only 8 years of age, with already a missing front tooth.

"I'm fine. Your mother nearby?"

The boy nodded and pointed over to a young lady keenly watching their interaction.

"Good. You protect her alright? night time isn't as safe as it used to be."

The boy nodded and waved back to Zane as the man left.

Zane kept driving for a while coming up to a church, he knew his destination was just on the other side of the building to his left. He drive up the street and turned as soon as it was available to him. A roof covered what looked to be a delivery area occupied by a simple bog standard car.

Zane parked his own vehicle behind it and turned off the ignition. Cracking his neck and retrieving his gun, he stepped out. His body ached and he found himself stretching and yawning loudly, feeling the bones click in his spine. Gun holstered and legs beginning to wake up he moved to the garage door that was half-open. No light greeted him but he could see where he needed to go, at the back of the room, which was filled with cold storage goods - probably medicinal, was the sign of The Order, the infamous mask of the leader with black crosses over the eyes. Zane didn't waste time entering his code, the door was already opened.

He stepped through, his surroundings turning almost creepy crypt like and continued down the corridor. Doors had been blasted open from when the base was attacked many months previous saving time that Zane would've had to spend remembering the damn codes to go through.

The corridor opened out into a large room, warehouse standard lined with broken electronic equipment for reconnaissance and analysis, this room, and the following one was where the Order worked from. TV screens lined the walls some displaying static others turned off. A blue haze light up the room and Zane could smell the sweat and demon blood of the one who had entered before himself. He stepped into the second room, and saw as two teenagers shot up from their computer to the side of the room to face him.

A boy and a girl, the lad was familiar and Zane already knew the female.

"Zane?"

Kat was a pretty girl, 16 years of age if Zane was to guess; she was smart and had a good head on her shoulders. Her witchcraft was pretty good as well, for a human.

"Katherine, it's been a while." Zane walks over to the two, eyes on the boy who steps in front of Kat eyes hard. "I won't bite." Zane raised both hands, his jacket lifting up enough to show the boy his firearm. "Well, it depends on you really."

The boy didn't look too happy and almost made to move forward until Kat placed her hand on his shoulder, the boy looked remarkably familiar.

"Dante it's okay. He's with us."

Dante, the name ran clear in his head and Zane remembered when Vergil had told him about his long lost twin brother. It was true, the two were twins, even though last Zane had seen of the blond one was 2 years ago the resemblance was… uncanny.

"Who are you?" asked Dante, voice louder than it needed to be.

"My name is Zane, demon hunter."

"Dante, he's with us, he's good." Said Kat stepping in front of the boy.

"How do you two know each other then?" Dante pointed up to Zane.

Kat pulled away, stepping back on one foot, the girl seemed almost ashamed.

"He's a friend… of Vergil's."

The boy, Dante, wasn't impressed, seems his fight with Vergil had been true. Sadly, this one had won...

"Then why is he here? If he works with Vergil then he could be dangerous Kat!"

"I don't work with Vergil anymore, well, I never did work with Vergil more like borrow his brain.."

It was a complicated relationship; more like a odd partnership, in the beginning. Zane was the brawn and Vergil the brain, killing demons in and around Limbo City and figuring out a way to stop Mundus back before the Order even began.

Dante looked down at Kat, trust in his eyes, she placed her hand on his chest and nodded, repeating her trust in Zane before lowering it. Dante nodded in return and looked back up.

"How come I've never heard of you?"

Zane expected the question, Kat had asked the same one when they first met.

"We worked together for a time, but when we didn't see eye to eye any longer I left."

A simple answer and no doubt that Dante would inquire more, he didn't seem all that bright compared to his brother but Zane knew Dante was going to ask everything he could to see if he could be trusted. Kats faith in him wasn't enough for the Nephilim.

Kat muttered something that she needed to find and walked off into the darkness of the room where another iron door had been destroyed. Zane remembered that it lead down to the older rooms of the Order, leading to Vergil's private rooms at the back and finally to the server room.

Dante eyed Zane for a few moments longer before leaning against the desk he and Kat had been working over before Zane's arrival.

"What happened.. between you and my brother?"

"We had a little falling out, he told me what he wanted to do once he had found a way to kill Mundus, I disagreed."

"Did you fight him?"

"No, there was no need to. I disagreed with him, we argued and then I left."

"Where did you go?"

"Capulet town, for a time. It's just over the border, a nice little place by the sea."

"And then?"

"Across the pond to the UK, Germany, Russia, China, UK and then back here."

"What brought you back?"

"Mundus turning up dead."

Dante shifted on his feet.

"_You_ fought Vergil didn't you?" Zane asked. Although he knew the answer, otherwise Vergil would be here, explaining everything to Dante instead of himself.

"Yeah."

"He lost then?"

Dante nodded in reply looking down at his boots, he looked almost guilty.

"Vergil was going to subject every human under his control, he's not good enough to rule." Said Zane.

"Mankind should rule itself." Dante said, looking back up. Zane noticed the finer features on his face, what differed him to Vergil, it was the eyes, Dante's looked more human, real, expressive, while Vergil's was like looking at the covers of a nameless book.

"Mankind shouldn't rule itself Dante. It needs a leader just, Vergil isn't the one it needs."

"What are you saying?" Dante's voice seemed surprised.

"Vergil isn't the rightful ruler of the humans, but neither am I and neither are you. It needs a leader who knows about demons and will protect the humans against them, whether he or she does it himself or, gets people like you or me to do it."

Dante seemed to agree, his shoulders dropped as he breathed out.

"So a human?"

"I didn't say it needed to be a human, but I assume that is preferable."

The two stood there for a few moments, watching each other and studying. Zane could see that the boy used twin guns; residue covered his fingertips and trousers on both sides. He suspected that like Vergil, Dante had a weapon, probably Rebellion if the legends were true. Sparda had two swords to give to any of the strongest children he bared, Yamato and Rebellion. Supposedly, Rebellion was the more demonic of the two with a demon form that could be triggered once the sword had killed enough of its brethren but, that was just part of the legend.

Kat re-entered the room, seems she had found what she was looking for her shoulder bag looking larger than it had been before. She cast a glance to Dante who was still watching Zane before joining him. She muttered something to the Nephilim and addressed Zane.

"Why are you here?"

"I heard about Mundus, figured out that the Order would need picking up again after everything that had happened to it. Being invaded by SWAT, Vergil trying to take over the city - leaving you lot to fend for yourselves once more… It's not good what he did, neither was it fair." Kat closed in on herself, hand gripping onto her left elbow and head lowered. "The Order was supposed to protect humans and give those in it a fighting chance at life as well as pulling the demon control out from underneath them. Vergil seemed to completely disregard this after I left, he used you from the get go, even if he didn't know it."

"So you're here to rebuild this place…" said Dante.

"No. To restart the Order that I wanted? Yes."

Dante's eyes showed confusion and suspicion.

"How? And what makes your Order any different from Vergil's?"

"Simple" Zane gestured to the technology around them "All this, it's overkill, you just need one server and a good mind _or_ a contractor. Everything else can be focused on killing off as many demons as possible that affect a human populace. I've owned an old building over in Capulet town for a while, where I used to run my demon hunting job from. That's where I want to restart the Order."

* * *

It wasn't hard to convince the teens to go with him, Limbo city was going to remain in its destroyed state for many years now. With its banks in haywire, the city's already bad repertoire for drugs and scandal and the country's Presidency switching round due to re-elections, Limbo City was the lowest thing on the "to fix" list. Dante and Kat knew this already and Zane knew that all he had to do was dangle the carrot of redemption in front of their faces and he'd have them.

The teens felt bad to what's happened to the city, and they hadn't been able to even see what the damage is because of the people who'd recognise them and immediately try to string them up and kill them. Sticking to alleys and moving at night had taken a toll on the teens and Zane could see their hidden eager to get out.

He thought for a moment as he waited for Dante and Kat to join him in his car, feeling the stench of demon air seeping in through his open boot. The teens really did nothing wrong, they followed Vergil's orders to the letter because neither knew any better. He betrayed them and used them but in all honesty, if Mundus hadn't been killed who knows what would've happened to the city, better yet, if Vergil hadn't been defeated…

Zane hadn't really kept in contact with the younger Sparda son since he left the Order, even being located so close in Capulet town he found no desire to talk to his long-time friend. It wasn't that he hated Vergil or felt used by him when he realised what his own work was leading to, it was just that he didn't see the point anymore. By the time Zane packed his bags, bought his car and his new place in Capulet, Vergil had relocated to the Order's current (now ex) place and already had a team of over 25 working for him, including Kat. When Zane had gone in to say goodbye, for politeness rather than anything else, he'd then met Kat. Fresh out of her demonic fathers grasp and literally wrapped around Vergil's finger.

Zane felt sorry for the girl.

_Weapon less and cold Zane entered the new location of the Order, the passcodes to enter was simple to figure out, he knew Vergil that well, and upon entering the main room he was surprised to see how much work Vergil had put in since the two had decided to part ways._

_TV screens lined the walls, informants broadcasting information from their jobs and homes as they scoured their sources and contacts, men and women of all above university level achievement dressed in labs coats and gloves worked on the computers and tech that lined the walls of the room. _

_No one gave him a second glance, not because they didn't notice him but because they knew that Vergil was a man that wanted answers, frequently, regularly, they had to work to earn their keep and keep working to help the Order. Vergil had effectively tied them down. It sickened Zane watching them work and move around each other like everyone else around them was a waste of flesh in their way._

_"Who are you?"_

_A young girl, no older than 14 looked up at him from under her blue hood, Zane noticed the star on her forehead and smiled as it reminded him of the Third Eye - normally some sort of joke in movies but in certain traditions was a way for people to see the world of demons, or Limbo. She was thin, fragile looking, Zane instantly guessed that she was the human girl he had been hearing in Limbo crying out for help and screaming as she came to and from the realm. Zane never went out of his way to find her, seems Vergil did._

_"Is Vergil around?"_

_The girl, hesitantly nodded and lead him through the room into the second one, there was Vergil, standing over one of his workers and Zane could see his month move in short comments on the scientists work. Complimenting his work or not Zane couldn't figure out._

_"Vergil, someone is here to see you-."_

_Vergil raised a hand to quieten the girl, his grip frim on Yamato held in his left hand. Vergil pointed at something on the screen and demanded for the "information to be one his desk by the end of the night" before turning to the girl. When he spotted Zane behind her, he showed no change in his calm demeanour._

_"Zane."_

_"Vergil."_

_"I thought you would have left." The son of Sparda brought Yamato in front of him holding the top of its hilt with both hands blade towards the ground._

_"Just here to say goodbye Vergil. I'll be out of your way in no time."_

_"You don't have to go you know, the Order is stronger with you."_

_Zane felt his face tighten, sneering at Vergil._

_"After our little domestic? I don't think so." said Zane._

_He quickly took a look at the young girl, her eyes big and wide, she obviously didn't know what her boss and Zane were on about. Seems Vergil wanted to keep it that way._

_"Well, if you ever change your mind, I will be here." Vergil's lips curled slightly Zane couldn't even begin to tell if the Nephilim was amused or annoyed._

_"I won't be, don't worry. Keep on fighting though, and when Mundus is dead give me a call."_

_"Why would I want to do that?"_

_"So I can kill you myself." Zane zipped up his jacket. "Anyway, goodbye Vergil, I hope you fail or die -whichever one happens first… and it was nice meeting you-?"_

_"Kat!"_

_Kat's voice broke and she blushed at the squeak reply she gave. _

_"Katherine, maybe we may see each other again."_

_Zane didn't give Vergil another glance, feeling the cold glare that was given to him as he walked away and leaving the Order for good._

_Well until now._

Dante opened the passenger door as Kat closed the boot, settling himself in the leather seat.

"You guys ready now?"

"Yeah." Answered Dante.

Kat opened her door and settled herself in the back, throwing a bag in with her. Doors finally closed Zane started his car smiling as his 'baby' woke up and came to life in front of him, he patted the dashboard making sure his gun and phone were still there before setting the car into reverse and heading out. He didn't follow the same path as he did coming in, making sure he was putting in a lot of distance between him and that highway demon from before.

Although now, with the extra set of muscle, he could probably take it out, he didn't want to risk it.

As they left Limbo City, Kat watching from the back window as the city sunk beneath the horizon, Zane felt a little more at ease, although as he killed his lights once more as they hit the road (seems the UN hadn't caught onto to the traffic logs idea), his heart beat steady and his palms didn't sweat. Having Kat and Dante travel with him to Capulet was probably a good idea, for everyone involved. Zane could see his not so far away future, him and Kat being the brain while Dante was the brawn. Fighting demons and keeping an eye on the humans, just like Vergil and Zane had originally wanted.

"So, how'd you and my brother meet?" asked Dante sinking into his seat.

"We were brothers. Obviously not related by blood, my parents took him in."

"So, you were rich too huh?"

Zane laughed lightly.

"Yes, but I never saw fit to use my money as much as Vergil. I was more than content running around outside spending my money on stupid things like sweets and new bikes - just being a kid -while Vergil studied and worked on his computers. Our parents preferred him over me, seeing as he was always the better presented at the formals."

"Seems a bit harsh, liking your adopted kid over your own."

"Oh, I wasn't theirs, I was adopted too."

"Oh…"

There was a lapse of silence, Kat shifting back to look forward. Zane could see in his rear view mirror that she was playing with something sat in her lap, he couldn't see it though.

"You haven't figured it out then?" asked Zane bemused as he put his eyes back on the road.

"What?"

"That I'm like you…" when Dante gave no reply he continued "Well sort of. I'm an angel, a fallen angel."

"What's the difference?"

"Fallen angels are angel kids that are born on Earth. It's never their choice of course but it means that we cannot ever see heaven and we don't fight in the angel demon war. Something about our unholy aura or tainted powers or something but basically I'm pretty much like you Nephilim, live a human life – extended by a few decades or so if I'm lucky, able to poses angel weapons and can be pulled in and out of Limbo whenever."

"But you don't have access to demon weapons?"

"Nope, angel access only, neither do I have access to your Trigger forms. It's a Nephilim thing, I'm quite jealous really – Vergil was pretty powerful when he went trigger."

"He was? Didn't seem to me."

"Probably because all through that evil, snarky attitude of trying to take over the world he never really wanted to fight you."

"You saying he held himself back?"

Zane didn't answer taking a look at the display behind the wheel. He needed to stop at a gas station.

There was another lapse in silence, comfortable and accompanied by the sound of the car and when Kat shifted around in the bag on the back seat. She pulled out a book and opened it up to her last page head down as she read. Dante turned his head to look at her and Zane could feel the concern he had for her. He couldn't imagine what the two had been through – his memories of turning against Vergil had been ignored for a long time now and he'd never looked back on them – and seeing how Kat was so devoted to the man he could imagine that it hurt her more so than Dante.

Poor girl must be upset still.

* * *

It didn't take them much longer than a few hours to get to the next town, Lavender town. Dante had expected to see something akin to an actual town, old street lights, white picket fences, big houses but as he got out of the more than comfortable car all he saw was row upon row of housing units. Separated but still looked like they'd come crawling out of Limbo city and dumped themselves there.

Zane had parked in the gas station, telling the two that he was going to spend at least half an hour here fixing his car – he complained about some sort of demon and one of his tyres going flat - and filling her up with gas before they set off again. He promised to keep an eye on their stuff while they took a look round.

The town wasn't really a town, even Kat from her small height could see that the 'town' was only a couple of streets living on the family run restaurant, the grocery and the garage/petrol station. No more than 50 people seemed to live in this place.

Dante left his weapons back in the car – Zane said that carrying stuff like that around was just going to get them shot – but he knew that he could summon Rebellion anytime he wanted. Still leaving his girls and Revenant behind hurt a little.

The two walked upon on the sidewalk opposite the gas station, Kat looking back as Zane stepped to the gas pump. She walked up behind Dante and grabbed hold of his arm.

Her injuries had healed about 3 weeks after Vergil left them, but the damage was done and now Kat was even more introverted than usual. Thankfully, she found solace in Dante and so the male teen hadn't seen much difference in her when it was just the two of them. However, even in an empty place like this Kat would pull in on herself and lapse into silence, she also never looked at Dante's weapons, staying clear away if he had them out. Dante couldn't blame her really, she was still young and a lot of bad shit had happened recently.

It was part of the reason why he agreed to go with Zane to Capulet, he'd never heard of the place but Kat had told him that the town was more or less like Limbo City, full of demons, being so close to an inactive Hell Gate. It's supposedly a popular tourist spot being right next to the sea and Kat mentioned seeing pictures of it in magazines and on billboards before Mundus took full control of the city. She brightened up at the idea of starting a "new life" in Capulet hopefully attending a school there and getting a 'normal' job.

Dante knew though that Zane wanted them to work for him, so any normal job Kat would be getting would be whatever Zane decided to give her, Dante hoped that she didn't have to go out on the front lines with him anymore, putting herself at risk back when Vergil was in charge. Dante hoped that Zane wasn't like his brother, wasn't just going to use them for his own means.

It was why Dante wasn't going to do anything the guy said until he figured out what he was after, and getting into his car and leaving with him didn't count. Capulet seemed a good place to start anew, and Dante was hoping that with a new start Kat might finally be able to live a "normal" life.

He took Kat past a row of home and up to the family restaurant at the end of the street, Kat stopped to look at the menu of the wall causing him to stop too.

"What is it?"

"They have some really expensive stuff here." Kat pointed to one of the orders in the Main section. "You only get that in high end places, back in Limbo City only one restaurant had that on its menu and even then it was seasonal.."

"Maybe they are secretly rich? Come on."

Dante didn't see the point Kat was trying to make, and pulled her away and further up the street. She kept close to his side walking in time with him, it was almost cute.

They passed what looked to be an old B&B and thought to have a look inside, although the lights weren't on the front door was still open with a giant welcome sign. It was two home that had been joined and converted into the B&B and as Dante lead Kat up the stairs he felt almost a calm sensation coming from it.

He led her in and immediately the hallway lights light up, the lounge had been converted into a reception area with high wooden desk with those computer in the lowered section behind it, the walls were painted cream brightened with posters and canvas art of landscapes and city's. Kat loosened her grip and made her way to the kitchen and diner area to the left while Dante went over to the desk. He looked over and the wood was completely clean, nothing covering it and the computer was perfectly in line and looked unused and untouched. He stepped around and shook the mouse to turn it on, the monitor light up for a second before turning black. Dante assumed that the tower wasn't on.

"Hey Kat, see anything?"

"Just fish and a lot of meat on chopping boards you?"

"Nah." Kat walked back in looking a little anxious. "Where is everyone?"

Kat shrugged.

"Maybe they cleared out? Demon attack?"

"Could be, doesn't explain why this place is so clean."

"Dante, there's literally meat all over the place in there, that's not clean."

"Well this desk hasn't been touched in a while but..." he dragged his finger across the wood inspecting it, "there's no dust."

"Demon attack then."

"If it was demons this whole place would be smelling of it, and if we were really lucky some might've stuck around."

Kat brought her hand up to grasp her other arm, her now tell-tale sign when she was feeling worried or unnerved. Dante noticed this and stepped away from the computer – giving up on trying to turn it on.

"Sorry." He muttered, scratching the back of his neck.

"It's alright. I just hope there aren't any around."

"If they are I'll kill them before you see them, promise." Dante smiled which earned him one in return, Kat dropped her hand and muttered a small thanks.

"Come on let's get out of here and have a look elsewhere." Said Dante, moving back to the front door of the B&B.

**_Dante.._**

Dante stopped and Kat immediately grabbed onto his arm.

**_Dante..!_**

"Run!"

Kat's feet moved first pulling Dante out of the building and onto the road, the calls of Dante's name followed them and when they exited, it sounded like the whole building was calling out.

**_DANTE_**

Kat stopped and looked up, heart beating against her chest from the fear, her hands gripped hard onto Dante's arm and she gasped.

"We're being dragged into Limbo!"

Unlike before when she worked with Dante under Vergil and the Order, when Dante was dragged into Limbo all she would see was his whole form turn silver and fade leaving only a faint outline of his features, almost like he was being drawn by a grey pen in front of her. As the building began to crack and the voice became louder and coming from all around her, she knew that she was being dragged in with Dante.

"Shit."

Dante pulled her close to him, keeping an arm around her as he summoned Rebellion.

The building broke in half and the voice became even louder, the ground began to break and separate into platforms and the world around them turned straight into Limbo.

A bullet fire broke through the echo of Dante's name and everything stopped, Kat pushed away from Dante's chest to look behind the two of them.

"Zane!"

"In the car now!"

Kat broke away from Dante and made for the black vehicle without a glance behind her. Dante jumped as another bullet shot flew in front of him and hit a Stygian demon in the forehead that was coming up on his right from the old B&B. He quickly moved to follow Kat and saw that Zane had brought the car to them; he was on his side of the driver's seat but sat where the window would be so he could see across to them and fire his gun. Dante saw a silver bullet shot from the gun as he neared and he heard the demon behind him fall dead to the ground. Dante pulled his door open and close Kat's and climbed in as Zane was getting back into his seat. The car was already turned on and as Dante moved to close the door, the car sped off.

Kat was breathing heavily and in short bouts, she was shaking and curled in on herself in the back seat, Dante turned to her once the car doors locked themselves.

"Kat, it's okay, we're safe now."

Kat didn't register him.

"Kat-"

"Leave her Dante." Said Zane. "Let her calm herself down."

Dante made to protest but when he saw that his words weren't getting through to the girl he turned back around in his seat.

"She's a strong girl" Zane shifted gears. "She'll sort herself out in a few minutes."

* * *

"What happened back there?" Dante finally asked.

"In the town? The whole place was a demon lair. The gas station was real but everything else had been built by demons to trick your mind into seeing it as you saw it. High end stuff really, must've been created by a powerful demon that passed through here."

"Did you know?"

Zane shrugged propping his right arm up on the frame of the door window

"Kinda, the place looked a little too clean. And there was no one in the station, couldn't be too sure though."

"And you let me and Kat just walk off like that? When you knew something was wrong."

"I didn't know, just suspected. Nothing happened, you're both fine now and we've put enough miles between the place and us."

"What if the demons track us?" Dante remembered back to that Hunter demon which followed him home from Lilith's Club.

"They won't. There's wards all over the car – wiccan, anyone who enters it loses their 'scent' so demons can't track you."

Dante wasn't impressed, debating whether or not to put a bullet through the guy's head. Angel or not a head shot will kill him clean.

"Look, we aren't stopping till we get to Capulet but if it ever happens again I promise I'll tell you if I think something is up."

"Tch..Fine."

* * *

Opinions would be throughly appreciated! I wrote this after my internet crashed and thought to put it up here~

[EDIT] First chapter is acceptable in my eyes now, please tell me if there are any MAJOR errors that I've missed and I'll do my best to fix them.

All OC haters/dislikers [not a word I know please forgive me] I am REALLY, REALLY trying my best with Zane. I want to make him seem real to the story and I promise you, he's no super hero or anything like that! From now on all attention is focusing on Dante and Kat and what happens to them BOTH. What you may not like is that I'll jump to Zane every now and then, just to keep the fiction rolling for me. It's hard to write in Dante's and Kat's POV all the time and I just need that familiarity to keep me going so I can work this story exactly how I want it to turn out. Hopefully he's likable, if not by the end of this chapter hopefully in the next.

Regardless I appreciate you reading this and I hope it's interested you, or at least satisfied your interest - good or bad.


	2. Chapter 2 : Rusalka

**_- CHAPTER 2: RUSALKA -_**

_2 People killed in building collapse._

_Brothers Seth and Demetrios Royal are the latest deaths to occur in the port town of Capulet. Their deaths were caused by a weakening of their homes foundations, caused by poor planning of its construction and the heavy rainfall that hit the town last week. This caused the house to collapse around them as they slept. Both men died of blunt force trauma to the head and suffocation around 2:30am on Friday morning. Both men were dockworkers in the town and were seen as "hardworking and dedicated young men trying to make it by", told to us by their boss Mr Carlie. "Their deaths are a blow to us as a company and as their friends. Their family must be devastated." The Royal family have decided to sue the company that built the boys home - Limbo Buildings, but with recent destruction of the city due to a "terrorist attack" the company is unable to defend themselves and pay out. Full Details on page 12._

.

"How devastating, poor things."

Sarah "Latishia" Spence, 23 years of age and working with Capulet's "infamous" Love Planet paid 50 cents exactly to the older man behind the till, eyes still reading the front of the newspaper as she exited and began walking down the street. Her boots clacked on the pavement and she expertly dodged any pole, person and stand that was in her way as she walked. Eyes still glued to her paper.

Working at Love Planet was an easy way to pay for her university fees, she was still a couple of grand short of a part time first year but she was committed to make it. Living in Capulet town with her mother was pleasant enough but she knew that she had to move away if she was going to get anywhere and getting to university was the start of it. Capulet was a trade and market town – no universities in the town and a lack of good jobs. Therefore, for the time being she had to work at Love Planet.

At first, the idea of working at Love Planet turned her off, completely, she remembered thinking that she'd never stoop that far low but when she realised how much she'd get paid for working at the bar on the weekends and 3 nights in the rest of the week, including tips, she stopped complaining and jumped at the next opening. It was easy to apply, the boss wasn't too fussed about CV's and the like, all he wanted were people who could do their jobs and not complain about having their ass grabbed if they were making rounds. Sarah did enjoy working there, people were friendly and the regulars were fun to talk to – when they were sober or too drunk to even get off their stools– and she got paid well, what's more to ask for?

She stopped as she reached the end of the third block and turned in to a café. She frequented the place often and pretty much at the same time every day, she wasn't surprised when she found her raspberry latte waiting for her with a jam covered scone on the side.

She gave a thanks to the lad working behind the counter, Grey – as his name tag spelt, Sarah had never really asked, and settled herself into one of the booths near the back of the café.

She'd placed herself directly under the heating vent, a smile as she felt the warmth hit the top of her head and seep down. Drink and food on the table, purse away, bag on the floor by her feet, she opened up her paper.

.

_Limbo City on Permanent Lockdown_

_UN has decided from June 18__th__ that all travel to and from Limbo City is prohibited, anyone attempting to enter or exit the city will be prosecuted._

_The order has come about with the recent destruction of ¾ of the city, resulting in large scale losses and damages. Total loss account result in over $2.5 billion, mainly due to the destruction of the large scale banking company run by philanthropist, Kyle Ryder. Ryder's main office Silversack Towers was destroyed in the destruction of the city and no reports have been made whether or not Mr Ryder is still alive._

_Casualties are in the millions with a majority missing, the UN has stated that any survivors are now being compared against the census of 2011 to calculate total losses. But expected numbers are to be projected about 1.5 million in missing people. They ask for anyone with families and friends who were in the city betweenApril 15__th__ to May 24__th__ to report to a -_

_._

"Ah! There you are."

Sarah quickly glanced up. The whole area she was in was lined with the booth tables, with four small two seated tables in the centre, across from her a mother had been settled with a cup of coffee and her five month old baby wrapped warm in the pram to her side. She'd now been joined by another woman of a similar age, dressed in a business suit while the mother was in jeans and hoodie.

"Hey," the business lady sat down. "How have you been?"

"Good, good. Little one keeps me on my toes." The mother looked down at the child reaching in to move something around it.

"That's good to hear, everyone wants to meet him."

"I bet, cutest little thing in the world." The mother withdrew her hand and wrapped it around her coffee. "How have you been?"

As they settled into their "catch up" Sarah went back to her reading, taking a bite out of her scone. She gave up reading on Limbo City, figured she'd better go ask someone more official than a newspaper if she wanted to know the details, not that she did.

Limbo City had a university, but Sarah made sure to keep well away from it, regardless of its prestige and superiority to other universities around, living in Limbo City was like walking around with a "mug me" sign on your forehead. Sarah had heard about those financially secure, middle-class people that were pulled so far into debt that they literally had to start living on the streets and rely on "charities" to get them by.

"Did you hear?" the mother looked over at her friend with amusement in her eyes. "_That_ building was open yesterday.."

"That building?"

"You know, the one from a few years ago, the one with that hot guy who used to work construction during the day and then was out all night." The mother lifted her cup to her lips, a cheeky grin on her face as she waited patiently for her friend to catch up. The business woman suddenly gasped and waved the air in silent excitement at her realisation.

"_That_ guy? He's back? Oh dear lord we have to get everything on him."

"I already have."

"No!"

"Yes, I may not be 'working' but I'm sure as hell not giving up working."

The business woman leaned forward, their voices dropped into just above whispers, Sarah could still hear.

"He came back last week, him, some other hottie and a young girl."

"Family?"

"They didn't look related, but, I think he's moving in. _Permanently._"

If Sarah could see she would've seen the business woman eyes light up with a smile mirroring her friend.

"We need full details on this guy."

"So you can stalk him again?"

"Yes."

The mother laughed.

"Anyway, he's moved back into the same building. That rundown place in the residential area, just up the street from Love Planet. He's put that sign back up, "Devil Hunting"."

"I heard that he was some sort of demon hunter."

"That'll be true if demons existed."

"What about what's happening in Limbo City? People are saying that's a demon attack. And what about those boys in the house, Fred said something animal like was in there with them.." the business woman leaded back.

"It's probably some biohazard weapon gone wrong and the boys, you know how bad Freddie can get after a few drinks..."

Hearing only her voice and it would seem that the mother was adamant that demons didn't exist, but as the conversation moved into them, she reached over to her child, her back straightened and she looked almost fearful.

Sarah had heard of the place they were talking about, Devil Hunting was the name of a nondescript building just a few blocks away from Love Planet. The guy who owned the place had moved out to go abroad a couple of years ago and so Sarah had never met him personally, but his picture was up in Dezone's "attractive conquests" board. Dezone called him her "Fallen Angel" and would frequently complain that no man treated her better than him when they would get drunk after closing hours on Monday mornings. Of all her compliments and romanticising of him, she never got his name…

_If he's back maybe I'll see him later.._

Sarah flipped the page and carried on reading

* * *

Dante slammed his head on the metal headboard as he suddenly woke up, covers tangled around his legs and a thin sheet of sweat on his back, he cursed and rubbed his head. Pushing away from the headboard, he pulled himself upwards and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

What had woken him up? The same damn thing every day - that old classic looking jukebox from downstairs. 10:00am everyday it'll suddenly start up and play the same song over and over for a whole hour, if left untouched, when it'll just die and wait to resume its routine the next morning. Dante swore that it was Zane who was doing it, seeing as he couldn't actually wake up Dante without getting a bullet to the stomach, as proven the first night they moved in.

Dante pulled the covers off, kicking at the sheets as they clung to him, he wasn't impressed about being woken up like this again but there was no way he was going to be able to get back to sleep with that song playing.

"Future in My Hands" by some Rock Queen, Dante had never heard the song before they moved here, to which Zane said that he'll have to "educate him".

Pulling on the same clothes from yesterday Dante walked out of his room and rubbing at his ears as the music became louder. He stomped down the stairs and took note of a missing Kat. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, feet hitting the wood, the music died down. Zane was stood next the jukebox looking over at the list of music to play.

"I hate that thing."

"Only because it has better music tastes than you" Zane hit one of the buttons and the music cut short. The machine clicked and groaned as it changed the record inside.

Dante settled himself on the couch, jumping over the back, he found a beer he'd left from the night before, reaching over to throw it into the trash can by Zane's desk at the back of the room. When the bottle landed with a thud Dante smiled at his skill.

"We've got Morrison coming over in a few, says he's got a job for you." Zane settled himself in his chair, leaning back and placing both feet on the desk, crossing them over.

"Another job? Can't I get a break?"

"No."

Dante swore again. The record in the jukebox began to spin.

"**Now you've really crossed the line.**"

_He's gonna cross the line if he keeps me doing his bitch jobs._ thought Dante leaning back on the couch.

The song continued to play, Zane flicking through his phone while Dante stared up at the fan on the ceiling. With Kat gone, again, Dante really hadn't anything to do. It wasn't like Limbo where he could pick up girls from the side streets and take them home. Two reasons; One, Capulet didn't have girls like that and two, Zane - the guy was more of a prude than Vergil.

The only thing that occupied Dante for the past week were these hunts he was being sent on. Without Kat to help he'd had to do all the thinking for himself, based of Morrison's hugely faulty information, information that meant Dante was out for most of the day to come back and just crash on the sofa until he was verbally abused of his apparent smell and attitude by Zane that he'd go up to his room. For being such an angelic creature he was a jackass.

Made Dante feel like a kid being kicked around.

The song finished, much to Dante's delight, the jukebox began its clicking again. At those few moments of silence, the doorbell chimed and Morrison walked in, suited up and wearing his trademark hat. The blond male closed the door behind him and walked up to Zane's desk.

"I've got a job for you."

"Great. Dante." Zane double tapped on his phone's touchscreen ignoring Morrison as he took his hat and coat off.

"I think this one will go better if you're involved."

"You're a contractor Morrison, not my personal advisor. Dante."

Dante sat up resting his elbows on his knees, hands together as he waited for Morrison to sit down on the sofa adjacent to him. Morrison, stepped away from the desk and took his seat, folding his coat on his lap, hat on top.

"What's this on then Morrison?" Dante asked.

"Here," as he was folding he'd pulled out a folded piece of paper, now handing it to Dante. "Two boys died in a house collapse just a couple of blocks away from the pier in town. The official story is that the house was built with bad foundations, the huge rain period that happened last week supposedly weakened the earth around the place and allowed it to basically fall apart."

Dante opened up the paper reading the first few lines.

"You wouldn't be here if it was just an accident."

"A witness said that just before the house collapsed the boys brought back two females from Love Planet, a strip club a couple of blocks down from here, Zane knows it well," Morrison made sure to look up at said man. "Those two girls, weren't found in the house but they didn't leave it either. The same witness also said that an animal like creature was in the house just before it collapsed."

"Demons?"

"That's what you're going to find out, you get $500 for taking the job on and $1000 for finding out what happened and closing the case for the cops. If you can prove it with evidence you could possibly get another half a grand."

"So $2000 if I do the job right.." Dante folded up the paper putting it down on the desk. _That's me 2K richer _"Alright, I'll do it."

"Good. I'll get the cash wired to your account, you can start now."

"I will." Dante stood up heading over to his jacket on the clothes stand by the kitchen door. The jukebox had taken itself back to that damn song again.

Zane was still poking on his phone and as Dante and Morrison left together - Morrison offering the man a lift to the place of the accident.

* * *

"How many times you gonna offer Zane the jobs before me?" Dante pulled up his boot to the dashboard of Morrison's car to do up the laces.

"Until he finally takes one. You're good Dante but, Zane got the job done properly back in the day,_ and_ without extra damages that I have to end up paying for."

"It was one time."

"Three actually, five jobs I've given you and you've royally fucked up on three of them. You blew up a hotel Dante."

Dante mumbled something Morrison couldn't catch, pulling at the laces into their final knot.

"Just don't mess this one up, it's local and seems to be pretty simple. Just go see if you can smell and track the demon that caused the accident and kill it."

Dante, placed his foot back on the car floor.

"Easy enough." Dante repeats knowing that sod's law would probably pull at him again making this easy job into a bitch of one. _Just like the last one._

* * *

The boy's home was just couple of streets off the Marshall Pier, a well-used concrete pier that stretched out to the length of a cruise ship and stretched enough to store over 500 large containers in the warehouses. Due to its lack in aesthetic appeal it was built on the eastern side of the town, but that didn't take anything away from the rows and rows of white painted houses that lead to the way to it. For dockworkers they were paid well, Morrison explained that a majority of the local workers would be living in these houses. Dante snorted to himself as he saw each house as a replica of each other. White picket fences, front gardens leading round to a back, Drive ways, garages and a light porch way leading inside each home. Black slate tiled each roof and the white paint gleamed off them as the suns light hit them.

Dante was about to remark on this when he spotted their destination, aided when Morrison began to slow down.

It was the oddest thing Dante had seen, in-between two of the identical homes was a mess of a first floor darkened in black. It was like the house had been set on fire, burning the top floor entirely and leaving only the lower remains on the first.

"Here we are." said Morrison pulling on the handbrake.

Dante stepped out of the car, eyes staring at the building. Demons were definitely here there was no doubt about it but, the paper said that the building had collapsed, not burned. Morrison stepped out leaning on his side of the car to look over the roof to the building.

"Now that's one collapse."

"It's not a collapse." Said Dante. "Demons were definitely here."

"Well at least now we know it wasn't an accident."

Dante began to walk up to the ruins, stepping under the yellow police tape. He immediately noticed that no police were present, normally a case this fresh would have someone standing guard of the crime scene, a unlucky kid on the beat.

_'Maybe Morrison got them to leave, just in case?'_

He walked up the stairs onto the open porch, minding his feet as the wood threatened to break underneath him. Stepping through the open door and into the hallway, Dante was hit with the pungent smell of demons; it was exactly like it smelled in Limbo, of sick and molten metal, sharp.

Morrison called over to him about his departure to which Dante gave a curt wave not bothering to turn around. He heard the car start and drive off in the back of his mind but was too focused on what he'd found.

A single black tendril hanging from a high beam that would've provided support to the second floor, the material was only a foot in length and to everyone would've looked like a piece of clothing that had managed to survive the accident. Dante smelt something odd with it reaching up to grab at the end. His fingers briefly touched it only to be quickly drawn back when the tendril shrivelled and squirmed shortening its length and becoming further out of reach.

Dante bit the inside of his mouth in annoyance drawing out Ebony and Ivory. He targeted the base of the beam and without hesitating, unloaded a full clip of bullets into the torched wood. Cases dropped to the ground and as the chambers filled out and the last case fell the beam groaned and fell forward, crashing into the remains of a dining room table. The tendril came down with it, flying into the air and towards Dante. The Nephilim, put his guns away at his waist and grabbed hold of it, feeling it with is thumb.

It was soft like cotton but smelt heavy of demon, too much like those Lust demons from a few days ago.

Dante smiled, _this is defiantly going to be easy!_

* * *

Dante was impressed with himself. So much he could stop smiling. His guns warm against his back and Rebellion nice and clean back wherever she was now. Dante had finished his job at pretty much 19:10. The earliest completion he's had since he started at Capulet, and it felt good to finally have a job that didn't go sideways. Dante had ended up a couple of warehouses away from the destroyed home of those two boys, the place inhabited by a couple of lust demons, a few bullets and swing of Rebellion finished them off cleanly and Dante managed not to destroy a single thing. The only problem was the amount of sand that got into his feet.

Why those demons seemed to dissolve into sand he didn't get but at least it wasn't blood like the ones in Limbo.

Never the less, Dante was that impressed with himself he decided that he was gonna put his stuff back, declare his win to that arse Zane and then head off to this Love Planet he's heard so much about. Get some well-earned R&R, even if he can't take anyone home.

_'Maybe if I snuck them in or something, Zane can't kill me until the morning that way.'_

Turning down the street and stepping off the pavement Dante slowed as he neared the shop, the high windows and glass doors shone with the lights from inside and Dante could faintly hear music coming from within the building.

He took the stairs up two at a time and pushed both doors open. The shop was in its normal state except for the centre of the floor, where Zane had set up a plastic sheet on the floor and looked to be working on a-

"Pool table. What you think? It gets pretty boring stuck here so I thought I'd make one."

Dante watched as Zane stood up, brushing wood shavings off his jeans.

"Right.." Dante stepped around the sheet to put his guns on his work table under the stairs, next to the drum kit.

"You're early" Zane commented, bending down to fuss in his tool box.

"Job was easy, just a couple of Hell Lust's."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," Dante turned around walking up to the workspace. "Left a piece of that jacket they wear in the house" he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the tendril, he smiled. "The little shits didn't even know I was coming for them."

Zane seemed to laugh looking up to see the tendril, a screwdriver held between his teeth.

His face dropped when he saw what Dante was holding, pulling the screwdriver out of his mouth and dropping it to the floor as he quickly stood up.

"What is it?" Dante asked, stepping back.

"That's not from a Hell Lust."

"What? But it looks exactly the same as those cloak things they wear, smells like them too."

"Did it ever occur to you that it maybe there are some demons smart enough to try and put you off their trail?" Zane stepped away and headed to his bookshelf on the right wall from his desk; he quickly pulled out a tome and threw it to Dante. The Nephilim, unsuspecting Zane would go round throwing books, dropped the tendril and quickly caught the book wincing as he screwed up the front few pages with his hand. He quickly pulled them straight and closed the book so Zane wouldn't see.

"Look for 'Rusalka'." Zane jogged past Dante and headed upstairs, feet heavy on the metal as he went.

"How do you know it wasn't just the Hell Lusts?" Dante called out.

"Will you just do it?"

Dante sighed, annoyed, and leaned back against Zane's desk opening the book. It was handwritten and had everything Dante would ever need on every demon that had been come across by a hunter. Dante flicked through the pages, catching the names of demons he'd never heard of before; Blood-goyle, Arachne, Fetish. Each demon had pages and pages of information, history, biology, weak spots and weapons best used against them. Pages of information that Dante would never want to read even if he wanted to.

'_How many of these creatures are there to have this much stuff on them?_'

Marionette, Shadow, Damned Chessmen, Rusalka.

Dante pulled the book open, hearing the old binding crack in his hand..

_'Rusalka, related to Sirens, are demonic nymphs, succubus's and/or ghosts that live in waterways. They have been found mostly in port towns and docks by hunters in the past but a change in water systems has forced them to move further inland into lakes and river valleys. They are known in old traditional stories to lure attractive men to their deaths through song and dance. Have commonly been mistaken as Mermaids._

_It is believed that these Rusalka were once women, who died violently before their time and have been stuck on the human plane to live out their remaining lives as these demons. Whether this is true or not I do not know..'_

Dante looked further down the page, to the large handwriting of someone else at the bottom of the page.

_'If a Rusalka has been discovered in the month of June, do not try to kill it. It is the one time in the year that these creatures are impervious to many weapons and items. Also, have at least one female in the hunting group, Rusalka's with either ignore them and target the men or target them in a fit of jealousy leaving the men able to kill it successfully.'_

"Anything?"

Zane peered over at the book reading the first few lines.

"Ghost? We'll need some salt then." He chuckled and walked off to grab his jacket.

"What day is it today?"

"June 18th, why?"

"Says these bitches are impervious to many weapons and items."

"Well, that book was written by a human."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying." Zane snatched the book from him and placed it on the desk. "That no one has put a demon weapons through their gut, or an angel one for that matter. Let's go."

The two took a few minutes to get out of the shop and lock it up, leaving on the lights to make it seem that someone was inside.

Dante spared a few moments for Kat, who he still hadn't seen today, he was worried.

"Kat's fine, she texted me earlier saying she was going out with some friends she made." Zane dropped his keys in his jacket pocket and jumped over the banister of the stairs onto the pavement.

"Let's go Dante."

Dante caught up stepping alongside the fallen angel.

"How do you know it's one of these-"

"Rusalka."

"Yeah."

"I've come across one before."

"Did you kill it?"

"Not precisely."

"Then what did you do?"

Dante looked at the man's face.

"You sick fuck." Dante commented.

Zane shrugged laughing slightly as Dante voice his further disgust.

"I was drunk!" Zane defended.

"That doesn't mean anything, angels don't get drunk."

"How do you know?"

"Because I don't get drunk."

"_You_ are a demon and an angel, _I'm_ half human – kind of."

"Kind of" Dante snorted.

Dante noticed that the further they walked the louder a heavy beat of music became, it reminded him of Lilith's club and already he could smell the alcohol and sweat of dancers.

As they walked the road got larger and they noticed a huge queue outside one of the buildings a couple of hundred feet away from them, the beat was louder and Dante couldn't help but smile as he realised where they were going his step quickening.

"Don't get too excited, were working, actually I'm teaching and you're learning." Said Zane.

"Sure, because this is teaching me something."

"You'll see what I mean." Zane pushed ahead walking along the line of people up to the front of the building. Love Planet was smaller than Lilith's Club from what Dante could see but definitely brought in the same sort of crowd, and the same numbers judging by the line.

Zane got them inside, how? Dante couldn't careless, much to the disappointment of the people waiting outside. The angel pushed past customers and couples in the entry hall, small ceiling lights leading the way.

Love Planet was not as large as Lilith's Club, wooden floors, simple wallpapering, with a stage at the far end and a bar on the left. The lights were dimmed and the whole room was a mess of bodies, music and alcohol. Dancers entertained the masses on stage, swinging around on poles or dancing with each other. A DJ was set up at the top of the stairs just above the entryway.

A heavy beat filled Dante's mind, his sense of smell attuned to the sweat between the dancers and alcohol being served on rounds, a large crowd of friends suddenly cheered to their left, a single girl blushed as she was given a tray full of coloured test tubes. In the light Dante could make out bright eyes and a pale face, the girl reminded him of Kat - the way she smiled when the tray arrived and how a male to her left spoke in her ear. He was about to go over and see if it was her when Zane tapped him on the shoulder, motioning him to follow to the far side of the bar.

The two settled themselves on the edge of the bar, a young brunette girls wiping down the counter as they neared.

"We're having a themed night, what would you like?" The girl smiled at them, her hair was tied up in a bun but strands framed around her face, purple thin framed glasses sat on the top of her head. Manicured nails picked up two glasses from behind the bar.

"Themed? I'll get a G&T Virus, same for my friends here. No ice."

The woman nodded and turned down the bar to make their drinks.

"G&T Virus?" Dante questioned, Zane had turned on his stool looking out at the crowd. The place was packed, groups of people in the booths or on the dance floor surrounding the stage. All dancing to music that sounded familiar to Dante.

"Combichrist. You should know them, did a few shows in Limbo a couple of years back if I'm right." Zane looked over to some of the girls on the stage, eyes squinting as he tried to make out faces.

"Yeah, they're good." Said Dante. He remembered the night he went to see them, a couple of hours in Lilith's Club and in the end of it he'd brought back two girls and some of their merchandise. That hoodie was actually quite comfy.

"Damned are, at least I don't have to introduce their music to you."

The woman returned with their drinks, high glasses full of murky colours, blood red at the bottom and clear top with a blue coloured syringe floating at the surface. He looked over to Zane who was injecting the syringes ingredients into the glass before handing it over to the girl, Dante quickly copied watching in confusion as the blue liquid seeped into the drink. He handed back the syringe and eyed the drink.

"Don't question it, were here for a reason." Zane had already downed half his glass, and was back to watching the crowd.

"Getting drunk or finding the Rusalka?"

"We're looking for a woman not exactly in place here, either alone and watching the crowd or with someone and acting like they're the only ones in the room." Zane leaned back on the bar, elbow up on it.

"So either a stalker girl or someone making out with some guy."

"Hopefully it'll be the first one, the moment a Rusalka attaches her face onto yours it's like drowning in the Black Sea.. pretty disgusting."

"I thought you said you had encountered one before. Seemed like you enjoyed it." Dante felt himself pull on a cheeky smile, that all knowing one.

"Yeah, well… It was an experience."

"I'm sure it was.." Dante picked up his glass swinging it before taking a sip. Gin and Tonic, with Curacao. Not bad, odd but not bad.

Dante thought back to the girl who looked like Kat, dark hair, thin frame… It must've been Kat. Dante felt the urge to go and say hi, to talk to her, it wasn't fair that he was gone practically all day, every day, and she was gone in the mornings or asleep when he got back at night. It wasn't a desire to see her but to just speak to her, she was familiar, a good friend and he did care about her. The whole thing that happened back at Limbo and everything in-between before coming here had moved too quickly that Dante had to admire that he hadn't snapped at anyone yet. He mused that it was probably all those jobs he was given, distracting him and giving him the free reign to go all out on the demons he'd come across to get rid of his stress. A reason why he was a bit, destructive lately.

"Angel? Oh my Fallen Angel!" A female voice and a presence rushed past behind Dante, the draft turning his back cold causing him to shiver, and collided with the unsuspecting angel who almost fell off his stool.

"What the- Dezone! What are you-" Zane grabbed hold of her shoulders, trying to pry his attacker off.

"Oh Angel. Where have you been?" Dezone's sounded fake, almost as if she was putting on the voice. "I can't believe you left me like that. For 2 years I have been waiting for you, a girl doesn't get prettier as she ages you know?"

Dante twisted his head over, leaning back away from the bar. The girl who'd suddenly appeared out of nowhere was inches away from finding herself on top of Zane, her body in between Zane's legs and arms around his neck, body crushed against his chest.

"I-" Zane stammered, face confused and mouth agape as he thought of something to say.

Dezone laid her head on his shoulder her voice no longer carrying to Dante as she muttered things only Zane could hear, evident when the man looked guilty and embarrassed. The lights that were concentrated on the dance floor began to swing around as the music changed to a more upbeat song, the light swung over the bar illuminating them for only the briefest of moments. Dante immediately found himself squinting his eyes as the light hit his face, capturing only the short seconds of light on the angel and the girl.

Dezone was considerably larger than what Dante would expect, breasts obviously implants and a strong face that looked almost masculine. But he couldn't deny that even Dante would take her to bed, just as long as he was drunk enough to not care that the girl looked like she could knock him out without thinking twice about it.

"Dezone, please, you're embarrassing me." Zane ran his hand down her side stopping at her hip to help push her away, gently of course.

"Embarrassing you? Oh, my makeup has come off hasn't it? It's so hard keeping it on like all the girls in the world, just seems to stick to them perfectly!" Dezone stepped away and looked around. "I'll be back Angel." Giving the angel a light peck on the cheek, smiling and strutting off, hips swaying as she made her way through the crowds.

It was then Dante realised that her whole body seemed, wrong, as if she was actually.

"That's a guy." Said Dante, blinking twice as the thought ran through his head and out his mouth. His bewildered face upon realisation looked to Zane, who seemed more than uncomfortable sitting there on the stool but amused nonetheless.

"That's a guy" Dante repeated.

"There's lot of guys in here." Zane faced the bar, calling over the bartender from earlier to give him another drink.

"But _that, _was a guy. With tits and make up and, that's a guy!"

Zane sighed. "She was born male but identifies herself as female, nothing wrong with it."

"It's a guy!"

"You're a guy."

"You've made out with a guy, who looked like a girl?"

"It's called trans-gender if you want to be specific."

"I know what a trans is." Surprisingly enough Lilith's club had a few of them, dancers and customers. Dante had spoken to a few before, and once he got past the whole cross-dressing aspect and the physical changes that he'd notice, they were just regular people. Still, he sometimes felt a little unnerved around them.

"I'm not seeing your point Dante, if it bothers you so much" Zane quickly muttered a thanks as a new drink was placed in front of him. "Pretend I'm bi."

"But you're not." Said Dante.

"I'm not."

"But that's a guy!"

Zane picked at the bridge of his nose, annoyed and tired of Dante's 'short sightedness'. "Dezone is female, she's had her operations and is taking oestrogen to make her physical changes. Say she's a guy again and I'll shoot you in the head. Seems I have to treat you common decency as well as proper demon hunting."

"I know common decency but that-"

"Blond girl in the second booth at the back, alone with a bottle on the table, red heels, black dress. Has been watching you the moment we walked in."

"But-"

"Turn around Dante and find her." Zane bit out, hand on the glass tightening.

Dante rolled his eyes, letting out an exasperated breath, before twisting the bar stool to the crowd and stepping off onto the floor, eyes scanning the crowd.

The people around him could have been meddled into the same being, bodies moving in unison and together, Dante found it hard to pick out individuals amongst the crowds; Combichrist's Never Surrender playing in the background.

Even as the sounds vibrated the floor beneath him, the song screaming into his ears and distorting sounds around him and the guys next to him drinking from those test tubes calling out to the group of four girls a little ways further down the bar. Dante could feel this warmth hitting him, a brush of a hand on his left shoulder trailing over his shoulder blades and settling on the other shoulder. Dante felt the pull in a direction towards the other side of the room, towards the exit doors to the left of the stage.

That's when he saw her, blonde hair tied up in a loose bun, loose extensions falling down he back, thick dark green eye shadow and black lipstick. A silk black dress hung to her thin frame and he could see the red stilettoes on her feet under the table.

Just add a few rows of sharp misaligned teeth and a couple of claws, chainsaws and demonology and she'd be the perfect human succubus looking demon.

Not that Dante had actually come across one, it was just a thought.

Dante made his way over to the girl, ignoring his angel 'teacher' glaring at his back. Unlike the other occupants she was drinking a small glass of champagne, the bottle standing tall in the centre of her booth table. Exactly as Zane had said.

She smiled as he neared, watching him. She motioned to her booth and he sat down opposite her.

"Hey."

"Hi." Dante put himself on the edge of the seat, elbows on the table.

"I saw you enter with your friend and straight away I could tell you were different."

"Oh how so?"

"You're not from around here are you?"

"You could say that."

The woman giggled, nails tapping against her glass, a hand coming to pull strands of hair behind her ear. Dante glanced back to the bar, Dezone now sitting in his previous seat and chatting to the angel.

"Where are you from then?" She asked, snapping Dante's attention back to her.

"Limbo City."

"Limbo City?" she mocked surprise and tilted her head in worry. "I'm surprised you got out, what with these so called 'Demons' that have suddenly appeared."

"Yeah." Dante didn't know what to say, it wasn't like he could tell her that demons do exist, and that he'd killed Mundus and made them all appear in the City. The woman noticed his hesitation reaching over to his hand on the table.

"How about you and I get out of here? I enjoy this place but I don't like talking to new people with all this noise around."

"Sure." Dante smirked, hopefully with Zane distracted he could get his first amount of real action in weeks, even if supposedly kissing this girl would make him feel like he's drinking from the sea.

The blonde stood up, finishing off her drink and grabbing hold of the bottle, she dragged it off the table and began to walk away, hips swaying as she stepped. Dante watched her go and stumbled over himself as he finally realised where she was going.

Out the back door.

She slipped through the exit and turned around to him, her free hand calling him closer to follow. Dante pushed past people to get closer, slipping up close to her as they both left, she grabbed hold of his jacket and he had only a few second to remember to close the door before her lips were on his. Soft and wet from the champagne, she pulled him further out into the alley behind Love Planet and shoved him up against the wall, he didn't care that she was in control for that moment, this was the first piece of action he'd had in weeks, she wasn't going to have the upper hand for long anyway.

She broke the kiss and moved closer to him.

"You're pretty cute, for a kid."

Dante felt her fingers slid down his chest sneaking themselves under his shirt and around his back as she moved back in, she pushed further opening her mouth and enticing his tongue to hers. Dante smirked and joined in this "battle" copying her hand movement from before, ending up at her ass and gripping at the cheek. Her body twitched at the sudden movement but it didn't stop her. She pressed forward.

And that's when Dante felt it.

His sinuses filled up, as if he'd drunk through his nose, the taste of salt crashed onto his tongue and he had to hold back from chocking. His brain wanted to pull away, screaming at him to push her off him and breathe, but his body completely ignored it, pulling her close and slipping a leg between hers. A headache clouded his mind and he felt his grip become slack against her, that part of him fighting to back away was drowned out and all Dante could feel and hear were her muttered words over his skin and her body against his.

He felt his body twitch as fingernails dragged across his stomach, her lips settling back on his own. Some part of Dante screamed in disgust while another craved for her touch. His head burned as the tastes and feelings became a mess in his head, and the moment that Dante lost all of his sense and a rising feeling of lust hit him he swore he saw her face distort into scales and teeth, double eye lids and gleaming black blue eyes.

Dante could feel himself give in to, whatever was happening to him; his body craving for the woman and about to slam her into the brick wall he was against to take over. His hands ran up her upper arms gripping hard at the skin and about to flip their bodies when the air broke around him, a resounding bang smacking him back to reality and the woman collapsing to the floor a few feet away from Dante. Her blond hair covered her face as she laid on her side, champagne bottle breaking at Dante's feet. Immediately the sense of drowning was lost, Dante breathed heavily though his nose, chest relaxing and body coming back to its senses.

A shuffle of feet and the closing of a door, alerted the Nephilim to his left. Zane stood there, shotgun in hand.

Dante felt grateful at first, the part of his mind that had wanted to get away from the woman acting quicker. But this quickly turned to anger.

"Why did you do that? I was about to take her."

"By 'take' you mean fuck her against that wall, that I'll agree with, but we weren't here to have sex with the thing." Zane loaded his gun with four bullets, setting the gun back.

"You fucked one of these creatures and let it live." Dante motioned to the woman lying on the floor to make his point.

"Actually I shot it in the head before she came but that's just a minor detail." The angel passed him stepping over the woman, a foot on either side of her body.

"Oh so just because you fucked the demon-"

Zane unloaded another shot into the woman head, pumping the gun to shoot again.

Dante stared. It wasn't that he was annoyed at Zane for finishing the job, it was that even though his mind had rejected the woman his body still wanted her. Pent up frustration of not having sex ever since he joined the Order or just the after effects of her powers he didn't know, nor could he care. He just wanted to wring the angels neck or better yet stab him with Rebellion.

The woman's body disintegrated into ash to moment Zane stepped away announcing their departure back to the shop

"I'm staying." Called Dante. Turning swiftly back to the exit door, to re-enter Love Planet.

* * *

Dante slammed the door closed, unnoticed by those inside but loud enough to convey his anger to the angel. Zane rolled his eyes slipping his gun into its holster by his side. Dante wasn't going to turn up until the morning – he'd made that clear enough. Feeling a little guilty but pleased that the Rusalka was easier than he'd thought it would be Zane began his short trek back to the shop.

It wasn't until he reached the end of the first block that he realised that Dante hadn't even questioned how Zane had killed the demon. Dante had read that part about normal weapons not being able to kill a Rusalka at their prime time right? The Nephilim must've been so concentrated on that Zane had killed his company for the night that he didn't even think…

"God, that kid is stupid." Zane chuckled to himself receiving a wary glance from a group of girls that passed him.

It wasn't until the following morning, when Dante staggered through the shops doors and instantly found Zane on his phone, feet up on the desk, that the demon from last night was killed by a conventional gun. Too tired and still angry at the angel, the Nephilim just assumed that the gun was like his own and quickly walked up the stairs to his room to spend the rest of the day crashed out on his bed.

* * *

The ending is a bit rushed and I apologise. The whole thing just became harder than I thought to finish off at a good point so I kinda just kept writing until I thought "Right, no more!" and then just stopped... yeah.

Okay! anywho, here's another chapter. Hope people enjoy, if not, sorry!

Could I get any thoughts on the OC's? Mainly Zane. Anyone? So far my brother likes him but that's just one person out of however many decide to read this.

Thanks for reading.

[EDIT] just fixed a few spelling errors on this one really, nothing more. Oh, & dear old Sarah from the beginning will make another appearance later on in the fiction! Chapter 5 if all goes as planned. :)

I've just realised... I've lost over 200 words from this chapter.. WTH?!

oh no wait, nevermind.


	3. Chapter 3: Thinking Back

- CHAPTER 3 : Thinking Back -

Capulet had grown in the two years, Zane couldn't put a finger on it but it felt as if the town was becoming something entirely different to what it used to be. Businesses were booming locally, new homes being built and there was expansion going on everywhere. It was good to see new families moving in and the locals treating them with kindness and open arms. Just the way new people should be greeted really.

With demons popping up out of hell gates and the incident at Limbo City, it was good to see the calm and peace around him. Okay, yes, Capulet was seeing some demons here and there, always had done, but they were small enough and so far and few occurrences of them that no one noticed and cared. It was reason why Zane had located here after he left Limbo City. Peace and quiet for once, and the place was close enough to other major settlements that were strife with demons frequently enough to sustain his shop in Capulet.

Travelling to and from the places did put a hole in his pocket for gas but, in the end he didn't care. Capulet was that perfect little town next to the ocean with all the right people and all the right shops and bars exactly where he needed them. He had no need to relocate at all once he moved here, especially when it had this doozey of a place like this.

A diner that had the greatest thing in all of heaven, hell and earth. Ice-cream.

This place, named 'Restaurant Fredi's' after the owner, was just across town from the shop but damn, Zane would come here through thunder and snow for some of their mint ice-cream sundae. Melted dark and white chocolate with rich mint ice-cream, with a few strawberries if the owner was feeling particularly generous, standing tall in a slim glass bowl. It was Zane's personal food heaven.

Zane runs his fingers through his hair, sighing and slumping in his seat thinking about the desert, feeling the metal bar stool creak under his weight. He picks up his phone, hitting the side of it to turn on the screen, the passcode screen shows up with 12:48 up in the top right corner. He drops the phone on the bar and stares down at the background, an old photo that he'd left back at the shop when he had to move to the UK and then consequently lost upon returning, stared back up at him.

"Always a geek weren't you Vergie?" he muttered.

"Talking to yourself again?"

Zane head shot up to the side, eyes wide in surprise, they relaxed as the familiar suited Morrison sat down next to him.

"You know me, I'll be talking to inanimate objects and expecting conversations with them." Said Zane.

"You already talk to your gun." Zane could hear the smile in Morrison's voice as he took off his hat laying it on top of his folded jacket on the bar counter.

"My gun's my baby, don't insult her."

Morrison chuckled, "Insanity at its best, talking to your guns and giving them names."

"She's called 'Lady' you know. Sophisticated, sassy and sexy, just how I like them."

Morrison rolled his eyes, resting his lower arms on the counter.

"What you doing here anyway?" asked Zane, in the corner of his sight his phone switched off.

"I've just had a meeting with a contact over on Beaches Road."

"Merc work?"

Morrison nodded.

"Ah- well, at least you can take the rest of the day off huh? Must be nice." Said Zane

"It is, but I see that you've taken the last 2 weeks off as well."

Morrison was referring to Zane's constant denial of jobs, putting them all to Dante. "I'm not as good as I used to be."

"Headaches getting worse?" Morrison called over the young girl on rollerblades who was cleaning down one of the tables by the window. "Just a coffee thanks Cindy." The girl, Cindy, Zane didn't recognise her, gave Morrison a chipper reply and rolled away.

"Yeah. It's why I've thrown in the towel, can't deal with them like I used to."

"You're only human."

"Yeah, that's the problem." Zane pushed his phone so it lay directly in front of him, cleaning the screen with his index finger. "How's Dante doing on the jobs anyway? He doesn't really talk to me much." Unlike that time with the Rusalka, the only time the two had actually talked since arriving in Capulet was in the mornings and evenings with the odd, "I'm going out" or "We need more beer" in between.

"Well, so far he's done 7 and has successfully done them all. He works fast that kid."

"Just breaks a lot of things." Zane smiled as he remembered the text he got from the contractor last week saying that Dante owed the town of Lillyhill a new hotel.

"A _lot_ of things," Morrison repeated. "He'll get better, doubt he's done this sort of work before."

"You gonna get him to work with your mercs maybe?"

"Dante's good, but he's got a huge problem with authority. If I put him with one of the better groups it'll just turn into a mess."

"hmmmm Good idea."

"The kids been chased by demons for god knows how long and has only just managed to find some sort of sense of himself living amongst other humans. He needs a lot more than just time to get himself adjusted to living like a normal person." Morrison concluded.

"You saying we're normal?"

"Well," Morrison shrugged "I am, can't say much about you, you're insane remember?"

Zane laughed lightly, "That I am."

"So, humour me my 'Fallen Angel'" Zane swore that he was going to kill Dante for telling Morrison about Dezone. "What brought you back here? With Dante and that girl no less."

Zane bit the inside of his lip, thinking.

"Well, I heard about what happened in Limbo City; the hell gate being destroyed and Limbo breaking into the human world. I had to get over here as quickly as I could, I was born there." Morrison's coffee was placed in between them, Zane reached over and pushed the drink away. "When I was coming over I heard that a terrorist organisation by the name of 'The Order' was in charge for all these attacks happening around the city prior to its complete destruction. I figured it was Vergil, hell-bent on killing Mundus and taking over in his place – just like he had always planned."

"You think he had thought of that prior to starting the Order with you?" asked Morrison, picking up a sachet of sugar.

As Zane spoke he could help but hesitate in answer, "No." It was always difficult to know what Vergil was thinking of or what he had really been leading to in anything. "I don't think he even thought about it. We were what, fifteen? sixteen? When we started The Order… But anyway, I hear about this collaborator of the Order, Dante, and I figure that he and Vergil would still be alive in the city. So I get here and find out that the demons had pulled more of their buddies through before Mundus kicked it and that they're everywhere in the state around Limbo City."

"Around the Hell Gate that was there?"

"Yeah, so it made getting into the city a little annoying," _'thankfully I had some cannon fodder to distract a demon that tried to take out my car._' "But when I got there I ran into Dante and Kat, no Vergil. That's when I figured out that Dante was the twin brother Vergil had started banging on about once he remembered everything of his past. I couldn't just leave them there, the pair looked like a couple of kids not knowing what direction to go on a crossroads but too stubborn to ask for help."

"So you brought them back here."

"and got them to work for you."

"Dante works for me," Morrison dropped his spoon into the cup, stirring. "Where's the girl?"

"Working at a music store."

"Music store?"

"The jazz one over by the Lower Boarder."

"There's only one good music store in this town Zane. How come she's not working with Dante? He tells me she's a physic and can faze in and out of Limbo, give her a weapon or two and she may be quite a good hunter."

"No. I don't want her on the front lines fighting demons."

"Because she's a woman?"

"Because if Vergil is cruel enough to leave them alone after everything they did for him, then he's cruel enough to use her powers against us."

"Us?"

"He'll know where she is, Limbo works both ways, travel somewhere in Limbo and end up exactly at that point in the real world, all he'll need to do is hear her voice once in Limbo and he'll know exactly where we are."

"Why are you doing this Zane? Couldn't he find out through Dante the same way"

"No, he won't go near Dante because he'll know that Dante would be able to sense him out. Going through Kat will make it easier for him to kill Dante, and I'm not going to let that happen. Not when the kid's just starting to figure shit out for himself instead of running and fighting everything."

"And these jobs you're giving him help him think?"

"It keeps food on the table."

Zane felt Morrison turn his attention to his drink, the two lapsing into a comfortable silence. The angel thought back to Kat, the sweet young girl that she was, plagued by her powers.

* * *

_A silence lapsed in the car from the moment they broke out of the boundaries of Lavender Town all the way to Capulet. For Zane, it was one of those many times that he enjoyed. Where he could just sit in his car and just drive. No music or the sounds of people around him to discourage his thoughts, and even though he could hear the quiet snores of his passengers, young and clearly worn out from months -probably years of being chased and hunted, he felt alone. It was a good feeling allowed him a moments peace and to just breathe. He felt himself relax into his seat, hands dropped down to the base of the steering wheel – keeping a firm grip - and he double checked that his gun was exactly where he put her. As Dante shifted mumbling something as he slept, his feet scuffed the dashboard something that would've pissed the angel off to no end. But, just seeing the kid relax, Kat in the back lying across the seats, head rested on her bag. It almost made the angel smile that the two actually fell asleep around a complete stranger._

_Almost, made him smile._

_It wasn't long till they hit Capulet, a few highroads and the main tunnel that had been built through the mountains that encase Capulet by the sea had them arriving to their destination quicker than Zane had planned. The car's monitor read the time as 8:29am, the heat from the towns nightly acts had cooled the sea so much that a mist had blown in, covering the place in a light white haze. It wasn't anything to be worried about or interested by, just enough mist to cover the streets and a few of the low lying buildings, seen from the road that ran down parallel to the town before entering it._

_Zane decided not to wake the two until he reached his shop, satisfied that a duo of well-rested teenagers would be a duo of awake and co-operative teenagers._

_Turning onto the main street that ran through Capulet, Zane pulled off at the third turning, taking the scenic route to his shop. It wasn't like he was eager to get back home, knowing the huge pile of cleaning and unpacking that had to be done. Luckily he'd hired a few guys over the phone to move all his stuff back in for him, hopefully they'd put it in decent enough places to mean that Zane wouldn't have to shift them all himself._

_He pulled up in front of his shop, pushing down on the clutch, he peered past Dante out of the window to his shop._

_'No damage, good'_

_Pulling back he tapped Dante on the shoulder, rousing the teenager awake._

_"We're here." He said, opening his door and getting out._

_Stepping round to the boot, he clicked it open, waking Kat and pulled out the duffel bags inside, slinging one over both shoulder and the other in his hand he swiftly climbed the stone stairs and unlocked the front door of the shop. Dante's door opened and the angel heard him say something to Kat before stepping out._

_The door opened easily, and unsurprisingly stale air and the smell of leather hit him straight on upon stepping through the threshold. Zane dropped on of the bags down to keep the door open and kicked the other door to do the same with a second bag. He winced when he heard what sounded like electronic equipment in the bag hitting the ground._

_Stepping in he familiarised himself with the shop, his little shop. Desk on the far end, stairs leading up to a balcony with four doors along it. His personal library still in one piece behind the stairs and across the back wall, twin sofas and an old TV set just to the left and a bar on the right wall. Oh, and his prized little busted up jukebox. _

_Zane was glad that no one had gotten the idea of breaking into the shop, human or demon. Placing the third bag by the door and walking up to his desk, just as Kat walked in._

_"So-"_

_"Welcome to your new home." Zane sat himself down on his leather seat behind the desk, after brushing it down of course, back sinking in and he breathed out in relaxation at the comfort. He fiddled with the draws on either side, opening and closing them to make sure they still worked. _

_"It's…nice" Kat was obviously trying to be tolerant to the smell and the thick layer of dust on everything._

_"I'll get the place cleaned up." Said Zane pulling out an old gaming magazine._

_"Man, what the hell?" Dante walked in, back cracking. "What's this place?"_

_"Your new home." Zane flicked through the pages._

_"This place? It's-"_

_Kat elbowed the teen, giving him a hard look. She motioned back to the bags to which Dante just looked at her blankly._

_"There's two spare guest bedrooms upstairs, bathroom at the end of the balcony" Zane motioned upwards and to the left of him. "Do whatever you want to the rooms, don't particularly care. I do have a few 'things to know' while you live here. One, don't destroy my shop, Two, everyone under this roof pulls their own weight around here, make a mess, clean it up. Three, Dante is going to be the sole earner to keep us here."_

_"What?"_

_"Four, I don't want anyone being brought back home, that means __**anyone**__, I don't care if they're your best friend or a one night stand, no one but the three of us, clients and contractors can walk through that door." The angel pointed to the open door to make his point, watching as Dante's face look like he was about to argue. "And there isn't a back door for you to sneak people in either. I'm sure there's other rules but I can't remember." He leaned back. "Take your stuff up and get some sleep, it's morning but I need you out of my way and you'll need the rest."_

_He ignored the nephilims murmured comment as he roughly grabbed hold of the three bags and made his way upstairs._

_Kat hesitiated watching the Angel under her heard Dante stumble into one of the rooms, the door shutting behind him._

_"Kat." Zane, pushed his chair backstanding up. "There's one rule that I want only you to follow."_

_The human girl looked up at him, straight faced but curious._

_"I'm putting Dante to work with a contractor starting tomorrow, he'll be tasking Dante with demon hunts or investigations that are likely to turn into them but, the only thing I want you to do is stay clear of demons."_

_"I don't understand."_

_"I don't want you fighting demons alongside Dante as you did before in the Order."_

_Kat's eyes widen, and immediately Zane could feel the confusion and anger. 'I'm not a kid.' 'I can take care of myself.' 'What gives you the right to say what I can or can't do?' was what he'd expected her to say but._

_"You think I'm a liability. Because I'm human, don't you?" She was. "I'm defenceless, weak."_

_"Yes. Humans get killed too easily, you have nothing to defend yourself with expect your wiccan and demonology knowledge which hold nothing to the power angels or demons wield. I am not sorry. I will not allow you to fight alongside Dante, ever." _

_Kat didn't speak for a few moments, staring up at the angel _

_"I won't listen to you." Kat pushed her chest out, a human gesture to try and show dominance, it was a subtle movement but Zane could still see it. "You have no control over me or Dante."_

_"You listen to me." Zane stepped forward, feeling her body close to his own, anger in his voice. Why couldn't she understand that he was trying to protect her from the world that she doesn't need to know about? "I will not allow you to get hurt by demons any more than you already have. You are human, you need to be protected. Dante can take care of himself and it's not like the two of you are going to go off on your own little conquest to usurp a top end demon to try and save humanity." Kat broke eye contact, stepping back like she'd been hit in the face. Zane calmed himself, hearing Dante move towards the door in his claimed room. "I'm doing this to protect you."_

_Blue eyes met his own again, and for the first time she looked like she was about to hit him._

_"I don't need to be protected."_

* * *

After that Kat had never talked to him, he couldn't blame her, nor would he openly blame himself but, he knew it was his fault. Thankfully, she was tolerant enough to answer his questions and report regularly when she was away from the shop, one other rule the angel imposed on the two. It did worry her that she was gone for most of the day, coming home late and then leaving again in the morning. Dante had commented on it a few times, asking him where she was – the angel was beginning to suspect that Dante actually liked her – but he couldn't give the Nephilim an answer that he believed himself.

"Here's one mint sundae." Cindy chirped, roller-skates announcing her arrival through the double doors.

"Mint sundae?" Morrison laughed. "You've got a childish sweet tooth there."

Zane smiled as his desert was placed in front of him. Not his fault ice-cream was so damn good.

* * *

Not really my sort of standard for a chapter in length but it'll have to do until I can figure out what to torment Dante with and how to pull attention to him and Kat instead of my OC. Only because I know, EVERYONE hates an OC here. Though, hopefully, Zane isn't too terrible(?) I'm really trying my best with him and make him likable (although my plan is to make him one of those, i don't like him but I do sort of characters), suit the story and not Mary-Sue in the least.

As a side note, Kat is really hard to write. I don't even know why! Must be becuase shes a strong character but unlike other females I've written who've been strong physically and so easier to demonstrate as such, Kat's different. UGH~ I love her but I hate her too.

If the english sucks major assage, sorry. It's 3.34am here and I've just realised I have to be alive again in the next 5 hours so no time for editing.

PS: If anyone thinks of anything; what could be another "Mission" or, anything that I could do in future chapter please, don't hesitate to ask/demand it from me. :) I enjoy taking prompts from people and if I was to have a few that I could use I'd be eternally grateful! Also it'll be good to have them if I can't think of what to happen next!


	4. Chapter 4: Once a Home

_**- CHAPTER 4: ONCE A HOME -**_

Holstead mansion was built many years previous to the current century, stone and wood, blood and sweat had seeped in every crevice and fixture in the home. Created it, made it.

But it was not the only mansion built on this higher ground, overlooking the then bare village of Capulet, no, it had a twin built alike. Man who worked on the Holstead Mansion worked on the twin, effort undeniable to each building and when both were completed, both stood as finely crafted as planned. Marble imported from all over the world decorated as pillars and floors, edged the house on its corners and protected It like a cage.

When the work was fully completed, both were put to sale, and within a few weeks both were bought.

The mansion that was claimed by the Holstead family, a father, mother and four children found themselves upon the new home, loving their sanctuary the moment they stepped through. The old furniture from the grandparents suited the dark green walls, wooden floors creaked as if old but smelt of the outdoors, fresh and clean. The move was quick, clean and good. Never had the Holstead felt they had been blessed with such a home.

Across the way, the twin building, unlike its sister this one stood alone for many years. The smell became dry, rooms lonely, doors untouched.

The Holstead's, awaited for a neighbour, someone to share with. The children questioned on who may move in across the road, who would tend to the gardens like their mother did, who would step out to the town like their father.

Answers were quickly answered, only to be properly given fourteen years later – upon Capulet becoming a bigger place serving enough people to be called a town.

An elderly lady, assisted by the local council – and mostly for the house to have someone to live in it – was given the place at half its original price to pay. She moved in with her twelve year old granddaughter, parents lost in wars.

The Holsteads' opened arms to the two, grateful for company upon their hill and someone new to talk too. The children, now in their mid to late teens, were more than excited.

This time judged many, and a family that did not agree with the laws and religions of God were seen as lesser people, demons to some. When the young children of the Holstead family questioned young Bella about god she smiled and answered.

"There's no such thing as God."

The boy were surprised, the eldest, steeped in his parents words angered and told her she was wrong.

"If he was real, then why did mommy and daddy die?"

The boy had no answer, called in by parents moment before the girl answered they went home thinking and questioning.

The parents found out and soon talking to Bella was no longer permitted.

This was the beginning of the problems that fell upon the twin homes, sat on top of the hill overlooking the bay and Capulet.

.

It started off small; accidents in the town, buildings setting alight without a fire, timings were random, made no sense to the people. But then a case of smallpox travelled through the local schools, infecting the children and families that they came home to. Funerals became mass burials for people and people began to live only indoors. Smoke filled the streets, people wearing masks of leather and cloth soaked in vinegar and wine to act on their daily lives.

All of this happened in Capulet, but the twin houses upon the hill, both homes were left untouched. The Holsteads would watch as the smoke would thicken their view outside every morning and dissipate at nightfall. The children watched confused as they saw what was happening around them, but completely untouched, the marble cage of their home protected them from the town.

"When would this be all over?" they asked, day after day, rotting away in their homes.

"At least we were safe."

It was a Thursday, July 19th that the demons of Capulet town came to visit them.

A storm brew in from the sea, channelled by the cliffs that lined the land and fell heavy upon the town. Waves struck the docks, boats thrown off the land and to the water. Floods cleaned the graveyards and washed away the smell and death. Upon morning the people of the town breathed salt air, smiled and laughed as their spirits soared in the first freedom in weeks, patients struck by the illness healed overnight and the whole town became anew.

But up on the hill, the father and sons cried out for the mother. Looking for her in every room and hole in the house. It was only when they crossed the street to the other home did they see it.

The elderly lady strung up on the rafters and the corpse of the mother beneath her – chest ripped open, organs spread across the floor as if something had feasted upon her, face frozen in screaming at the unknown horror.

The Holsteads remained at the home, even as the police investigated and questioned and deemed the house acceptable to be resold after only 2 weeks.

The Holsteads never knew what had happened on the night Capulet was indeed saved by the sea, and neither did they know what happened to the granddaughter.

* * *

_ "You'll be making a grave mistake, not just for yourself but for mankind."_

Vergil, and all his talk about mankind. Dante had begun to believe it too.

_"With the two of us working together, I believe that we can defeat them!"_

Kill the demons, kill the succubus, kill Bob Barbas, murder Mundus.

They defeated them alright

_"All war is fought with deception and you have been deceived."_

Deceived, deception, lied to.

Vergil lied to him. Vergil hid the truth and used him. He had begun to believe his brother, began to find a peace of mind in the Order, working with him and Kat to fulfil the protection of mankind, to save the world from the demons.

All of it lies, worse than the demons that they fought. Some part of Dante wished that he'd killed Vergil on that plaza top, pushed Rebellion through the stone underneath his brother and watched as he uselessly tried to stop him, unable to call Yamato to his side, until he died.

Dante wasn't sure what actually killed a Nephilim but he was sure that long enough there Vergil would have died.

"Dante?"

Dante snapped his head up, looking to his left across the room as Kat crept in. Through the half-opened blind Dante saw her in her hoodie and shorts, no longer carrying around her stencil in the tube on her back or the spray can by her waist.

"Kat? Is there something wrong?"

Kat stepped into the room, closing the door behind her quietly. She looked pensive, worried even.

"Kat-"

"It's Zane." Said Kat, leaning back on the door.

"What about him?"

"He won't let me go on missions with you."

"What?" Dante sat forward, feet firmly on the ground. "But why?"

"He says it's to protect me, keep me safe but, I think he's scared." She pulled down her hood. "I think he fears that Vergil's going to come after you, us maybe. I don't know just yet really but it makes sense."

Dante blinked at her, completely lost. He'd been awake for the past 2 hours, unable to go back to sleep when something rapped against his window about 4am. The sun wasn't even debating coming up at that time, and so Dante had laid there staring up at the ceiling as his mind wondered, body moving to kick off the sheets when he suddenly became hot. It's only now that he noticed the sun appearing casting the sky a light navy.

"Kat this is too early for-"

"Don't you see it?" Kat steps forward stopping halfway across the room near the end of his bed. "He knows things we don't Dante, it's a no better position than what we were with Vergil. We need answers for once."

Dante groaned, feeling that his head was already hurting_. It's too early for this_.

"What do you want me to ask him? Why he's not letting you go on missions" _That is unfair though. _

"No." She looks down for a moment. "Your next mission, what is it?"

Dante shrugged.

"Don't know until Morrison turns up or we get a client walking in."

"Oh. Well, when you get one tell me."

"You want in then?"

Kat nodded, giving the Nephilim a quick thanks before sneaking out, hands reaching to pull her hood up again. She made sure to close the room door as quietly as she entered.

* * *

Dante unclipped the safety on his gun for a fourth time, breathing in heavily as he shifted on the 19th century sofa beneath him. His body closed in, making himself as small as possible as to not further get what the butler had said "below substandard attire and dirt" on "her lady's" furniture. He wouldn't normally have felt like this but between the oak double doors and the marble floors, adorned with animal skins and thick sheep wool spreads, chandeliers from Venice and a lounge ceiling that badly copied the Sistine Chapel, Dante felt out of place, big time.

The room lingered of red berries and smoke, like someone had just had a live fire coursing through the place with a Christmas dinner on the go, it was a pleasant smell, surprisingly, but it was strong enough to begin to burn at the Nephilims sinuses.

He flipped the safety back mind remembering back to this morning, a few hours after Kat had spoken to him and once he heard Zane moving around in his room next door. Dante had settled himself onto the couch downstairs, and was pretty much awaiting for Morrison to walk in.

* * *

_"Here."_

_Dante tensed as the newspaper fell on his face, darkening the light behind his eyes._

_"What?" He sat up, feeling the paper fall into his lap, bending and creasing along broken lines. He picked it up, fixing the thin paper between his fingers and laying it out flat on the coffee table. Black ink stared back at him, words that held no interest._

_"Page 4." Zane stepped back, settling himself onto the other sofa, hands clasped together, elbows on his knees as he leaned forward. Lips tight in a fine line. Dante opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, seeing the look of concern in his eyes, but stopped himself, fingers taking the corners of the paper. 1…2. And turning them._

_MURDER ON SOUTH COAST CITY_

_MURDER IN REDFALLS VALLEY_

_SUICIDE OF 19 YEAR OLD SON_

_RAPE AND MURDER OF FAMILY_

_SUICIDE OF TWIN DAUGHTERS IN MOLLESTIEN CITY_

_MURDER OF 6 HIGHSCHOOLS IN OBRAY STATE_

_DEATH OF 1,500 IN OLDTOWNS CITY._

_Dante was in a moment of shock, looking down on the lines and lines of black that covered the double spread sheet, he spotted the last article running onto the next page, he didn't dare turn over his gut telling he'd only see more. _

_"What's going on?" Dante asked, dropping the page._

_"I don't know…"_

_"What do you mean you don't know? Are these demon attacks?"_

_"I don't know for sure if they are-" hands clenched into fists. "Dante look." Zane lifted his head to look at the Nephilim, "Something is happening, has been ever since Vergil destroyed the hell gate back in Limbo City. Demons are all over the world now and are integrating themselves with the humans we know but this," He gestures to the paper. "This isn't right, demons don't do this, in my years of killing them have I never seen anything like this. It's almost like it's organised, planned."_

_Ever since the hell gate was destroyed? That was over 2 months ago, if not more, if these killings had happened ever since then… _

_"This is organised?" Wait. "You don't think Vergil is behind this?" It was a thought that had crept up in Dante's mind for a long time now, Vergil would want his revenge and he wouldn't be waiting around to have it._

_"I don't know."_

_Dante felt anger in him, unplaced, wrongly out to the angel but he couldn't keep it down. _

_"Then why are you showing me this? What does this have to do with me?"_

_It had everything to do with him, he was the one who allowed Vergil to destroy the Hell Gate._

_"Because I don't think these are demons kills Dante. Something is going on and I just get this feeling that you're going to be pulled right into it." Zane stood, turning away and heading towards the centre of the room. Dante watched him go, the silence, the fan that continued to turn weakly above them, Zane's stiff back and form. His eyes.._

_"You're… worried." said Dante._

_"It's a fault of being half human." Zane deterred answering truthfully, laughing at himself lightly._

_"No, you're scared. You're scared of something. What's going on? What's happening?"_

_None of this made sense to Dante. He watched as Zane rubbed at his face in frustration pulling on locks of his dark hair._

_"I don't know Dante. But these, what you call, demon attacks have been happening since the Hell Gate was destroyed." The angel's voice was weak, almost as if he didn't want to believe what he was saying. "But they're too organised, like someone's pulling the strings, and it doesn't make sense if it was Vergil because it's too soon. There's something else, whether it's one of Mundus's followers, or a brother, or an angel I don't know but these attacks are becoming more frequent by the day and more people are dying." _

_"Hold on, an angel?" _

_"An Angel yes."_

_"Angels can do this?" Dante looks back down to the paper, rereading some of the headings._

_"Angels are just as destructive as demons are; they have to be if they are even going to able to shut them back in Hell."_

_"But angel's will actively kill humans?"_

_"You sound as if the thought hasn't even occurred to you."_

_Dante shook his head, "No, I just assumed that angels were good and demons were bad really." _

_"And your father?"_

_Dante didn't answer. His father was different, he fell in love with his mother, an angel, Eva._

_"Don't take this wrong Dante but I don't want you to worry about this. I just wanted you to know about it and be aware of what's happening in the world… I'll be keeping track of these attacks, and if one happens a little closer to home I'll have to leave then and there, I can trust you and Kat enough to look after the shop while I'm gone?"_

_Dante nodded, unseen by the angel._

_"Good. Now, Morrison called while you were drooling on my couch, he wants you over at the Holstead Mansion uptown in the next 20 minutes. You can walk there."_

_Dante inwardly sighed at the prospect of walking to his job, again, standing up and heading over to grab his jacket and guns. _

_Another job calls, joy._

* * *

Zane had worried him for a few moments, but seemingly sprung back to his normal self when the shop phone rang. When Dante left, cursing that he was having to walk to his job, Zane was laughing.

A maid passed through the room, walking behind him with a click to her heel, Dante settled his gun back discreetly behind him and attempted to relax. His neck cracked as he moved his head side to side, reaching up to rub at the point.

"Master Redgrave?"

Zane had instilled a last name to Dante to allow for a better impression to any high end customers that he may have, like this one. Dante wasn't too impressed at the paperwork he had to sign and agreeing that he would always introduce himself as Redgrave if he dealt with someone who, by Zane definition, looked like "they love to bake pies and talk to their girlfriends about the next charity meet and the cute guy who's moved in next door."

Dante didn't get it either.

Dante sat up, careful not to lean back on the plush cushion behind him.

"Sorry to making you wait, I had to finish my call with the lawyer."

Dante nodded in acknowledgement and acceptance of the apology, watching as his next client sat herself down on the sofa adjunct to him, facing the fire to Dante's right. A noon light brightened the room and at the far back Dante watched as the butler who'd let him in earlier left the room with a bow.

"Now, I see you're here at my lawyers request yes?"

"I was told that you had a demon problem." He drew his attention back to the woman. "Ma'am." He added for good measure – he needed to get on her good side if he was to score big money with this client.

"Well, I'm not too happy of this demon talk that has been going around. All this internet stuff with images somehow proving that these demons exist, no one believes it."

"If no one does, then why have I been called here?" If Dante had travelled all this way out of town, spent the last 45 minutes waiting for the woman to show and then get told he wasn't needed he was going to break something.

"My lawyer believes it. And I trust his judgement."

"And what is it I'm supposed to be doing?"

The woman brushed down her pleated, light blue skirt reaching forward to straighten a magazine that Dante had poked through earlier.

"I understand that you know what has happened here recently and I don't want to be having to repeat. Simply put, my house is cursed, I want you to find out who's cursing us."

"It could be a what."

The woman shook her head.

"We called a priest over and he blessed the house, it's not anything in this building so it has to be someone."

"Any idea of who it might be cursing you?"

"My husband is the first person I'd suspect, we're separated and soon to go through the divorce when my lawyer receives the paper work from him. If It is him I wouldn't be surprised, that bastard has been wanting this house and the children ever since the cops forced him to leave. He won't leave me alone and tries to deny that he was the cause of all this."

Dante nodded, pursing his lips unsure of whether to comment or not.

"Anyone else who may be behind this?"

The woman shook her head.

"No, I cannot think of anyone. I want you to find out who it may be. You have free roam of the house and all my servants are available for you to question and the like if you suspect that it could be one of them. You will be paid once the job is done, varying on your level of professionalism on this. Now" she stood, "I have to meet someone for lunch, I'll question you on what you have found later, if not my lawyer will do it."

Dante watched as she swiftly left calling out to one of her maidens as she entered the hall and made her way up the stairs, Dante rolled his eyes as he realised that he had absolutely no idea on what to do. Where does he start?

He pulled out his phone, the one that Zane had given to him that very morning, and turned it on, the screen flashed and Dante saw the last conversation he had with Kat.

I'VE GOT A JOB, HOLDSTEAD MANSION UP ON THAT HILL OR SOMETHING. – 09.47

OKAY, CAN'T JOIN YOU RIGHT NOW, GOT CALLED IN TO WORK – SOMEONE WAS ILL AND I'M THE ONLY ONE ABLE TO REPLACE. I'LL TEXT YOU WHEN I GET OUT. – 10.02

OKAY. - 10.03

DID YOU READ THE PAPER THIS MORNING? I SAW ZANE LOOKING OVER IT SEEMED PRETTY DISTRESSED. -11.18

Dante, clicked to open up the touch keypad, fingers still getting used to it.

YEAH, LOAD OF ATTACKS SINCE WE DESTROYED THE HELL GATE, ZANE THINKS ITS NOT DEMONS. -SENDING

He clicked back onto the home page and opened up his contacts list, going down till he found the Angel's number. He hit the call button and waited.

"-yeah hold on…. Dante?"

"Hey."

"Something wrong with the client? Lost?" Dante could hear him walking.

"No, I just need a hand here."

"What do you need?"

"The client wants me to find out who's cursing them, her mainly, and I have absolutely no knowledge when it comes to this sort of stuff."

"I figured as much. Okay, what you got so far?"

"Mother with kids living in this posh house, daddy didn't play the happy family role too well so they're separated – soon to be divorced. Morrison told me before I got here that the house has suffered 3 deaths in the past 2 weeks, all the bodies turning up in the house next door."

"Next door?" The angel voice became quieter as he spoke to someone with him "– yeah, I know.."

"That what Morrison said. Who are you talking to?"

"Just a friend. Anything else?"

"Yeah. The mother says it's not something in the house, a priest blessed the place or something, so it has to be a person."

"It may have been a satanic priest, I have run across a few before. Pagan ones are a little annoying if they decide to slip something in-between floorboards"

"Well hopefully this priest wasn't one of the two."

"huh…. Okay. So, broken family living it up in the high life, suddenly gets cursed and 3 people are already dead, their bodies found in the house next door. That's probably to keep the deaths from looking like it someone in the family to the cops… Who's decided it's after the family?"

"The mother I guess, seems pretty motivational, seeing as she's the one who's doing the divorcing."

"And I assume that she's put all the blame to the father."

"Supposedly he's the abusive one, called the cops on him to get him outta the house."

Zane sighed on the other line.

"It's a motivation that makes sense, I won't deny it. Go talk to the servants first get a general idea on the deaths and the like then talk to the kids, children are normally used as the warzone when divorces happen in families. When you talk to the kids be gentle okay?"

"'kay."

"See what you gather from that and work from it, if you're still stuck gimme another call."

"kay, thanks." Dante briefly heard someone call to the angel in the background.

"Anytime Dante."

The Nephilim hung up, pocketing the phone and standing.

"Right, servants first."

As if one cue the butler from before walked in, tray held under the arm.

* * *

Coming up to 1:30, Dante checked the time on his phone, and he had just about given up with the servants. The same story repeatedly. A bad record player or rehearsed, Dante didn't know but he was just about ready to throw someone out of that stained glass window in the conservatory if another person answered his question with "Well, they all just disappeared and then Mr Carson found them in the house opposite, _dead_.".

_Does anyone know anything around here?_

Dante made his way up the stairs, again, stumbling as he reached the thick maroon rug at the top; he cursed the thing and kicked it. Fixing his jacket he turned to his left and up to where he had been directed was where the children's room were located.

_"Only young Patricia is here right now, suffering from a dreadful cold. Be careful when you go in."_

That's what this so called 'Lady in waiting' had told him.

The floor turned to carpet as he was forced to take a few steps up and continue along the corridor to the end. His destination door was open by a few inches, a young voice talking within the room. Dante didn't bother to knock, opening the door and stepping through.

The room was what anyone would expect from a 7 year old who'd been forced into enjoying what was expected of a girl her age. Had she'd grown up with any other family she'd have a normal room; a light beige floor with shades of blue on the walls, but enough stuff inside to show people that it was a girls room. But instead, and much to Dante's disgust, pink and light purple surrounded him, walls, curtains, bed, the mirror in the far corner, the doll's house, the cabinet and the chest of drawers were just this ghastly coloured mess.

Dante looked up; at least the ceiling was white.

The little girl was similarly coloured, pink dress with white edging and frills.

Dante was in every mind to back out right now.

"Hello."

The little girl turned around to him, knelt on the floor. She'd arranged a circle of stuffed toys around her with a space for herself and another directly opposite her.

"Hey" Dante put on his best smile.

"Who are you?"

"Dante." He didn't have to give this kid his last name too did he?

The girl repeated his name looking over to the space in her toy circle.

She turned back to him,

"Hello Dante, I'm Patty." Patty smiled, blue eyes shining bright. Dante was sure that someone would describe her as 'radiating innocence'.

_'Must be that damn dress and that curled blond hair.'_

"What you doing up here? I'm ill you know."

"Well," Dante stepped forward. "I've been called in by your mother to find out what's going on around here."

"You mean what happened to the servants and Uncle George? What killed them"

"Yeah." '_Is it right to talk to a kid about people dying?'_ "I was wondering if I could talk to you." '_Zane would probably kill me if he found out I used some word that you're not supposed to use in front of kids or something.'_

"Sure. What do you want to talk about?"

"I was wondering if you saw anything."

"I see lots of things."

"I mean to do with what happened to the servants, and your uncle."

"Well I didn't see them when it happened." Dante knelt down.

"Do you know who may have done that to them?" it felt wrong to say 'killed' even if the girl had said them herself.

Patty obviously hesitated, looking down to her right, hands playing with the edges of her dress.

"No"

"You can tell me." Dante lowered his head so he could see her face better, she was biting the bottom of her lip, something was up. "I won't tell anyone."

Patty frowned, big blue eyes looking straight at the Nephilim. "Chloe says that a demon did it."

"Chloe?"

Patty nodded, "My best friend."

"That's… cool."

"Yeah, she's really nice always protecting me and playing with me, she was here when you turned up!"

_'What?' _

Dante cast his eyes to the space between a stuffed bear and a pink rabbit, the one Patty had been sat facing before.

"She was there right?" he motioned to the space.

"Yeah, you saw her when she disappeared right? She doesn't like grownups too much, she always hides when nana or mother are around too. "

"Yeah, I saw her." '_What the hell?_' "Sorry if I scared her."

Patty shook her head.

"It's okay, she'll come back later."

"Oh, okay.."

Dante gathered as much as he could from Patty, mind still very confused about Chloe, his only thought was that this Chloe was a demon herself (?). His phone vibrated in his jacket as he exited the girl's room, closing the door behind him as she requested.

I'M OUT NOW, NEED A HAND? – 14.12

Dante smiled, Kat could probably help him.

YEAH, STILL AT THE MANSION. 14.12

But maybe he should call Zane, he does have better experience than the both of them.

OKAY, I'LL BE THERE SOON. 14.13

Dante opened up his contacts menu again, full of numbers he'd never thought he'd possibly need – '_although Love Planet is here, and a Pizza Joint.'_

"Hello?"

"It's me again" Dante began walking back down the hallway to the stairs.

"Oh hey, got anything?"

"Yeah." Dante looked around him to make sure no one was around. "I think I've got it."

"Oh?"

"The youngest daughter, Patty has a 'friend', someone who isn't actually here. I think it's a demon."

Zane was silent.

"Zane?"

"Has it ever occurred to you that this friend could actually be an imaginary friend?"

_What?_

"- if she's pretty young it's completely natural for kids to create character in their heads and you know, play with them a bit, like have them – I dunno – attend their tea parties with all their stuffed toys or, help them build a fortress and protect it. Kids stuff. You know?"

_'I would know if I actually had the time to spend doing that stuff.'_ Dante thought.

"So it's not a demon?"

"I'm 95% sure that it's not. Did you play tea party with her? " Dante could hear the angel's amusement.

"Hell no"

Zane laughed – wait, was someone else laughing too?

"Well. You got any leads?" said Zane.

"I'm gonna go talk to the lawyer, see where his idea came from in the first place."

"Good idea."

"See ya."

"Ciao."

Dante hung up first, again.

He reached the ground floor of the house and stepped outside the front door, cool air hitting him and the sun just beginning its descent down the sky. Dante left the front door slightly open, enough to let him back in, and settled himself down on the stone stairs.

He'd wait for Kat and then hang around for this lawyer, supposedly he was going to talk to Dante if the mother didn't.

* * *

Kat arrived about 15 minutes later, shoulder bag in hand as she stepped out of the taxi. She gave Dante a small smile and joined him on the stairs, pulling her hood down.

"So," she pulled the bag over her head, strap across her body. "What's going on here?"

Dante had been looking at the empty house opposite ever since he sat down, comparing it to the home he was currently on. Both were exactly the same in every shape and form. But, whereas the Holdstead family home was clean, freshly cut grass with a small rockery on the left hand side, the house opposite was a mess. Grass grew impossibly high, mosses growing on the cracks between the bricks as they broke. Marble dirtied and wooden stairs malformed as the rains and weather changes had reshaped it dipping in its centre. But all of this failed to cover up the obvious tracks the people from the Holstead household had made travelling to the home prior to their deaths. Dante let out a breath.

"Past 2 weeks 3 people from this house have died," he point to the abandoned home, "their bodies turning up in that one. The mother thinks that the husband is cursing the place - probably working through the servants until he gets to them. It's not an item in the home and what I thought was a demon just turned out to be a child's imaginary friend."

Kat nodded, hands clasping under her legs as she copied Dante's gaze.

"That's the house they've been found dead in?" asked Kat.

"Yeah."

"Then let's go and have a look."

She stood up, waiting for Dante to join her, even as she stood on a step higher than him she was still smaller, he smiled at the height difference.

The two walked side by side, down the stairs and across the road to the house, following the most recent disturbance in the grass to the front door. Wood ached under Dante's boots, the porch around them creaked above their heads.

The door was already open, Kat pushing just over the handle to open it, both waited for the door to slow before stepping through, Dante meeting a familiar structure to the inside. Unlike the Holstead mansion, everything of value had been pulled out of the home; ripped from the walls or left on the floor broken. The emptiness, mixed with the oppressive and heavy air that crept around them put Dante at unease. Kat stepped up behind him, looking past his arm to the ground just ahead of them.

"Dante, there's blood, on the floor."

True to her words, Dante saw it. Red covered the cold ground just ahead, shaped as if someone was lying on top of it. Dante stepped forward, gaining a better look, only to stop when the blood began to run, creeping up through imaginary cracks in the floor, thicker and darker, towards him. Pooling, but still leaving the traces as if someone was there. Dante sidestepped away as the blood neared his feet, taking hold of Kat's wrist and pulling her with him, she hesitated, watching as it neared the door.

Dante took them through to what in the Holstead home was the room Dante had spent waiting for the mother. Again like the main hall, only the dark green walls remained ripped down to the blocks of stone where someone had pulled out the electrical units built in it. The Nephilim loosened his grip allowing Kat to wonder over to the front window, looking out. Dante could see, through the filtered light reaching in to the room, where the dust had been upset, footsteps entering and failing as they neared the end of the large room and entered the other, Dante followed the tracks, twisting his back so he could see the light hitting the floor as he moved along. The next room was separated by a wall simply dividing the two rooms by a few metres inward on both sides. Dante almost hit his shoulder on the wall, he stopped and stepped over to the other side keen to continue following the tracks. In the corner of his eye Kat had moved away from the window and was inspecting the wall, fingers running along the sides dragging dirt and old cobwebs as she went.

Dante turned back to the footprints, stepping carefully as he found the light on them again. He stopped just when the steps became fewer, eyes running along the rest of the tracks until he saw the white tape. A body had been found here, lying on its side.

_Must be where one of the servants died._

Dante bent down to the tape.

"What did you find?" asked Kat walking over.

"Just this, and footprints from where the poor sod walked."

Kat knelt opposite Dante, careful not to get her skin touching the floor, she spotted the tracks that Dante spoke of, cleared of the dust and right next to where Dante himself had stepped.

"That doesn't make sense." She muttered.

Dante looked up, questioning.

"What doesn't?"

"Before you and I came here there's only one set of tracks leading to this spot, but there can't be if the police were here. There should be tracks all over the place." Her voice was quiet, thinking at the same time. "Dante-"

She was interrupted by a loud scream coming from upstairs. It sounded human, terrified.

Dante leapt to his feet, Ebony and Ivory pulled out from behind his jacket. The Nephilim broke into a run, calling out to Kat to follow as he made his way into the main hall and up the stairs, Kat had shook in fright at the noise but followed Dante none the less, knowing that she was safer with him than she was alone.

* * *

Dante was at the top step as Kat started on her journey up, she followed in his energy taking two at a time watching as he disappeared up another flight of stairs and out of her sight.

"Dante!" she called out. Not to stop him so she could catch up, but of the sudden feeling that gripped at her. She felt like she was being watched, watched and followed as she went. It put her on alert, eyes dancing as she made her way up to find a source, she grabbed the back of her neck in an attempt to stop the shiver that climbed up her spine as she turned the corner to follow Dante up another flight of stairs.

Another scream reached her ears, closer than the last. She finished her climb to see Dante stood beside one of the doors in a corridor to her left, she slowed her steps treading fast and quietly as she neared, stopping a few feet away from the door.

Dante's face showed determination, breathing deeply. He held up his hand motioning for her to stop. Kat pulled up her hood.

She watched as Dante stepped forward, right foot tapping the bottom of the door, pushing it open. It groaned under the contact but moved regardless, shining light onto his face from the window opposite the door.

Kat watched the Nephilim step through, Ivory and Ebony held in a fierce grip at his side. Dante turned towards the rest of the room as he stepped through, stopping as he was halfway across the wall. When she turned the corner, Dante's eyes were wide.

Kat went to speak to him, catching the sight of a pink dress in the centre of the room, the focus of Dante's eyes.

Kat followed his gaze seeing a small girl stood with her back to them. Blonde, curled locks and a pink dress upon pale skin, the girl stood in bare feet, head bowed low to the ground.

The feeling in Kat was stronger than ever, her human instinct wanted to know more to walk closer to the girl and turn her around but something in her fought back, the side that allowed her to enter Limbo, see demons and monsters.

"Patty?" said Dante, unsure of what he was seeing.

"Dante," even as the Nephilim seemed to recognise the girl stood in front of them it didn't weaken the feeling in her. "Dante, we need to go, _now_."

"Hold on." Dante stepped forward, shrugging off Kat as she reached out to him. "Patty, what are you doing here?"

Kat didn't go after him, even though it would've taken three steps to reach the Nephilim she didn't dare cross the wooden floorboards.

"Patty?"

The girl cocked her head, seemingly hearing Dante call out the name. She turned around, head still lowered. Kat backed into the wall, fingers gripping onto the ends of her hoodie, watching as the blond locks began to move as the girl lifted her head to the Nephilim.

_Take me there…_

Dante stopped his advancing, fingers shifting on the gun as he adjusted his grip.

_My body… take me…._

The girl stared up at Dante, and Kat couldn't help but gasp in fear and push herself further to the wall. The girls skull was void of eyes, eyelids opening to only show the dark hollow in her skull, mouth stitched on one side with red wire and circular lesions covered her face and skin- which had become so white so far it looked like she was dead.

_Take me.._

The girls jaw unhinged and she screamed out in fear again, wire snapping as her mouth opened. Kat covered her ears, feeling her legs bend as her body tried to make herself smaller. She watched as Dante pulled back, stepping back to her and grabbing her by the arm, his grip cut the blood circulation in her arm but the pain was forgotten as Kat saw the fear in his eyes. He called out for her, to run to get out, pushing her in front of him as they began to exit the home. Kat never ran as fast as she did now, Dante slamming the door closed behind him as she reached the stairs, not waiting for him to catch up as she made her way down, she heard her loud breaths, covered only by her heat beat banging inside her head.

She turned down the main stairs into the hallway, trying not to trip and looking up to catch Dante a few steps behind her.

"Kat!" Dante's voiced called her to stop, just as the girl appeared at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at them.

_Take me there…_

Kat watched as she fazed in and out of Limbo, spiritually weak or taking on a different form in their world Kat wasn't sure and too distracted to think it through. The girl looked like she was only mist when Kat felt her presence appearing behind them at the same time, she spun on her feet calling out to Dante as the girl appeared behind them, jaw unhinged again.

**_My body!_**

The girl lunged at Dante, but with Kat knowing of her movement s beforehand she was able to pull the unsuspecting Nephilim out of the way. He collided against her, taking hold of her shoulders to steady himself, the girl faded out as she hit the floor, her screaming voice sounding throughout the house.

Kat pushed Dante off him, seeing a clear way to the door, she jumped the last few steps and grabbed hold of the handle.

It didn't move, she threw herself against the door and pulled again.

"Dante! We need to get out!"

"There must be a door leading outside the back." Dante took hold of her hand, Kat feeling the sweat in his palms.

The Nephilim lead them through the room from before running over the tape and into the conservatory at the back, Kat rushed ahead and tired opening the door. It opened with ease and the two threw themselves out of the house and onto the small stone patio outside.

The garden was like the front, grass that somehow stood taller than Kat. Dante took hold of Kat's hand again, and started making their way through the grass; it was the only way they'd be able to get out.

_Take me…_

Kat looked behind them as she went watching as the door slammed closed.

Dante cursed as he led them, unable to remember the lay out of the garden in the home opposite.

Then the grass suddenly cleared an open area of dead, black vegetation at their feet and stood in the centre of it all was a stone slab, grey and broken in half. Kat hurried over taking Dante with her.

"What the fuck was that thing?" Dante let go of her hand looking back the way they came and to the house, _we can't have travelled this far out already.._

Kat inspected the stone slab, an "IP" engraved on the broken stone and what looked like a name. She studied it quickly.

"It's a ghost."

"What?"

"It's a ghost." She repeated, fear in her voice. "You can't kill a ghost! She's going to kill us Dante."

Dante bit his bottom lip, drawing out his twin guns, rebellion appearing on his back in a flash of light resembling his tattoo.

"How do we get rid of it?" he asked.

"You have to exorcise it"

"Can you do that?"

Kat shook her head, "Vergil never taught me about ghosts, they're not _supposed _to exist."

"Yeah, tell that to the screaming banshee here."

Kat heard movement from within the grass, Dante must've heard it too raising his guns in swift familiarity.

"Guns won't work."

"I know. But what do we do?" Dante snapped, pulling the safety off.

"We need to get out."

Dante shifted his footing, a larger stance ready to fire.

"We need to get back to the house then get around the side fence or something."

_But that meant walking straight to the girl._

Kat tried to think of a plan, but she didn't know a thing about ghosts other than the stuff she read in old folklore through passing.

**_Take me…_**

Dante swung his body to the right, watching as the girl walked out from the grass, fading through the yellow green stands as if they weren't there. It looked at them both, before noticing the gravestone. The girl stepped forward, to which Dante sidestepped away Kat following him. At each step the creature made the two moved further away, the girl was transfixed at the gravestone stopping as she reached its broken head.

Kat realised this was her chance, and she pulled on the back of Dante's jacket, telling him that they could leave now. Something in her said that they were safe now, and with that Kat lead them back towards the home and away from the girl.

They couldn't find a side fence so they agreed to try the house once more, Dante still held out his guns watching for any signs of the girl returning. Kat got them inside, breathing a sigh of relief as the door easily opened.

She lead them back through, quick steps to the main hall.

Kat spotted the door, now open and began to walk quicker.

TAKE ME…

The girl snapped into reality in front of them, Dante unloading a clip of bullets at the creature.

Through bullet shots Kat heard the tell-tale signs of the world breaking around them, cracks formed in the walls and a heat unlike any other shot right through her, she watched as the world broke and Limbo formed all around her. The ground beneath her feet broke apart and flew in random directions she heard Dante call out to her as her floor flew high above him. Kat grabbed hold of what was left of the doorframe and found herself tilted.

The floor swung so far that she was no longer able to stand, she screamed as she realised that the moment she let go of the doorframe she would fall into the pits of Limbo.

And something told her, she'd never get out.

* * *

"Hold on Kat!" Dante found himself on a platform consisting of half the main stairwell and the rest of the main hall.

"Dante!"

Dante cursed as he saw no route to get up to save Kat, with his attention drawn away the girl screamed again.

Dante failed to notice the girl no longer there and in her place a huge hulking monster that stood the half height of a hunter demon. When Dante noticed the creature- clothed as if to hide itself, multitude of red eyes on his face and down its arms and leaking out black ooze from where it's heart would've been that burned the floor as it dripped of it body – he cursed.

There wasn't enough room on the platform for him to fight the creature properly, all other platforms were too high for him to reach and a lack of demonic or even angel residue on them to allow him to use Ophion left him stuck where he was now.

_Take me.._

"Yeah you've said that already!"

Dante unloaded another clip of bullets to the monster, watching as each case fell to the ground and each shot go right through the creature. He put the guns away and ran towards the creature, dodging as it fell down onto all fours over him, the black ooze falling. He withdrew rebellion, and directly under what Dante assumed was the stomach of the creature he stabbed upwards.

Only to find that Rebellion met no resistance.

"Use another weapon!"

Rebellion morphed into Arbiter and Dante hit the closest thing he could with the giant axe, the creatures leg, this time the attack bounced off as if he was fighting a Frost Knight.

"Fucks sake!"

Osiris was summoned to his hand and Dante twisted on his feet swinging the scythe at the exact same spot. He was met with flesh upon his blade and Dante called out in amusement. The creature lunged backwards; back feet slipping off the end of the platform briefly. The creature lowered its head at Dante, a stout mouth that jutted out like a crocodile with teeth to match, red eyes shined in a unknown light and the arms slammed down on either side of the creature, the black ooze falling out continuously. Dante wasted no time, hearing as the platform Kat was on moved further and further into a vertical stand the girl screaming out for Dante to hurry, and began a barrage of attacks on the creature, swapping between Osiris and Aquila whenever he could. Aquila allowed him to hit the creatures legs while he dodged an attack, throwing them so they slashed and danced around the target until recalled. He could feel the creature, unable to fully move due to the small platform, become frustrated and angered. Dante didn't expect it to suddenly swing a arm at him as he jumped up to hit it in the face, Dante angel stepped out of the way but the shear force behind the attack sent the creatures arm swinging up past the creature head and hitting a platform nearby. As Dante landed on the ground he watched the platform spin and move through Limbo's atmosphere, right towards Kat.

Kat didn't see the attack, but when the remnants of the second living space collided with her own platform, the impact and weakness settling into her arms broke her free from the doorframe and gravity took control.

"Kat!"

Dante rushed to the edge of his battle ground trying to reach out to the human girl, she was too far out and Dante watch as she fell further and further into Limbo's depths.

Something inside Dante fell with Kat, and all he could feel for that moment as Kat was engulfed in the orange and red fires of Limbo was this emptiness unlike anything he'd felt before.

It scared him.

The creature did not care for the human girl, only to feast upon the flesh of the angel and demon brood in front of it, one hand reached out to grasp hold of its prized meal only to scream and fall back as the air thickened and something cut off its hand. The creature's eyes looked upon the Nephilim, widening in realisation that it's meal had transformed into its devil form, half awoken but incredibly dangerous. The creature roared and attacked again, its stumped arm slamming down on Dante with as much force as it could muster. It met Osiris's cold hard bite, and the creature cried out as the rest of its arm fell, rolled of the platform following the human girl into the pits of Limbo.

Dante roared out in pure anger and hatred. His mind blanking and his body moving all on its own, this feeling of pure destructive power ran through his blood as if it was meant to be there, it belonged. It was like he was back on that plaza, overlooking Limbo City as he forced Rebellion down into Vergil's chest, watching as his brother struggled to breath, struggled to move and so much in shock that Vergil forgot all fight and flight instinct and just lay there, in Dante's control.

Dante body slashed and cut deeply into the creature that was in front of him, mindless, unformed. His mind thought to Kat, hearing her screams as she fell over and over, watching as he lost her, unable to save her. Unable to protect her from the demons.

* * *

When Kat lost her grip and she felt herself falling, it was only when she looked to Dante did she realise she wasn't going to make it, she wasn't going to return to her world again. Limbo was going to kill her and her soul would forever be damned to eternal torture – never crossing to hell or heaven.

She stopped screaming the moment she saw Dante, tried to reach out to him as he did to her but even she knew that they were too far apart to reach each other.

She was scared, more so than climbing up those stairs after Dante, more so than watching Dante and Vergil fight their last battle, more so than when she was held up in Mundus's lair or when the SWAT team attacked the Order.

A brief thought crossed her mind, questioning if this was worse than her nightmares – the ones before she met Vergil.

Probably, she thought, at least then I could escape.

Her body suddenly became hot and she realised she could no longer see the platform Dante was fighting on. A part of her gave up then and there but another, the other knew there was a way out, a way for her to be saved because she knew damn well she wasn't able to get out of this on her own.

That's when she felt it, a cold crossed her skin and pulsed through her body, a rhythmic beating in her ears from a source closer than she'd thought. She felt her body stop falling, chest winded as something caught her, something under her knees and behind her shoulder blades, the cold felt more real better at where she was being held. Kat opened eyes she would never recall closing.

* * *

Dante didn't know when he'd killed the demon, it's body dangling haphazardly over the edge as he continued to tear it apart. Osiris covered in black and red, the ooze clung to Dante's skin, already worked its way through his clothes, determined to wear away at the flesh but unable to. His demon had taken control and Dante's mind was long gone to care anymore, he wasn't able to question why he wasn't back in the real world.

Dante stopped as he heard a voice calling out to him, familiar, young, female. He smelt a human presence and that of an angel, his demon in full control zoned in on the angel. Snarling in rage he spun on his feet and charged at the angel, he didn't expect to be suddenly thrown to the ground, a cocky smile on the angels face and legs being placed either side of him. The demon in Dante writhed in anger, having lost his grip on Osiris.

_"Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus,"_

Dante's mind heard the voice, clear and as strong as the noon sun in a blue sky.

_"omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii,_

_omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica"_

Dante saw through his own eyes, the demon inside him rearing back from control, a familiar form was above him.

_"unde factum est ut rediret, redde mihi hunc hominem"_

A hand rested on Dante's chest, his lungs felt cold and a pain laced through him unlike anything else. He recalled to the time in the dirt bathroom where he ripped open his own chest, just to see his heart beating inside in a pace unlike anything he'd seen.

_"ut Ecclesia iterum requievit in tabernaculo meo."_

The demon pulled away, hiding deep within Dante's powers and the pain faded. Dante breathed in heavily, arching his back in order to draw in more oxygen, he coughed and twisted to the side as best as he could, feeling the taste of metal in his mouth as he coughed out blood. The form above him chuckled, and a presence knelt above his head, soft, small fingers running through his hair.

When Dante closed him eyes, feeling the weight of the form above him move he opened them and realised where he finally was. Back in the main hall of the abandoned house. Dante looked up, seeing Zane. The angel smiled, sincere and a little embarrassed. It was then Dante noticed the angel wings; light brown in colour darkening only at the ends and along the ridge, the man had them folded, reaching up as high as his head and down over the entirety of Dante's legs.

Dante didn't comment on it, choosing to ignore them and look up to whoever was stroking the top of his head. Kat bent over, hood down hair falling either side of her face.

"Kat" Dante breathed, a smile of pure relief.

"Hey." Kat pulled her hand away, and a part of Dante wanted the hand back again.

"How did you-"

"Zane, he flew down and saved me." Kat looked up to the angel, "Thank you."

"It's alright, it felt good to have them out again."

Dante grit his teeth at the adoration in Kats eyes, he reasoned it was the wings.

_Fucking things are just a chick magnet._

Dante shifted to gain the attention back to him, and then realised Zane was still pretty much sat on top of him. He gestured for the angel to move. Zane rolled his eyes and stood, Kat stood at the same time, only to stumble back slightly. Kat made a move to go over and even Dante felt himself rising to a standing position faster than he thought. Zane caught himself, hands reaching up to hold his head and he bent down in a silent pain.

"You alright?" asked Dante.

"Yeah, just," Zane cursed to himself. "using my angel powers isn't good for the rest of me." He massaged his temples groaning. "A few of the _perks_ of being a half human." The angel stood. "It's just a headache, it'll go in a few hours."

"I wouldn't call that a perk." said Dante, adjusting his slacks.

Zane waved a hand in the air, "It's called sarcasm Dante. You may not have been educated enough in it."

_I'll educate you in a minute._

Dante turned to Kat and gave her a smile, one that said he was glad she was safe, although he would never admit that he was going to be eternally grateful to the angel for saving her. Kat reached over and pulled on Dante's jacket, fixing it up for him. He walked out of the house with her, the door left open like it had been earlier, the sky was receding into the beginning of an early evening and Dante took the moment just to breathe in the clean air.

_Beats Limbo any day._

Zane stepped up beside him, pulling on a shirt, wings gone. The angel looked tired, but Dante paid it no attention.

"So, what happened?" Dante asked, realising that he remembered nothing between him turning to his Devil Trigger and waking up with Zane on top of him.

"I'd assume." Zane pulled the hem of the shirt down over his slacks, "that when Kat fell your demon side went a bit mad and hacked the Myling to pieces, and because you hadn't killed it your demon just kept hacking away until I turned up, saved Kat and exorcised the thing."

"Myling?" asked Kat.

"Scandinavian Mythology tells of children who were unbaptized and died horribly in life become hulking monsters who capture wandering people and force them to take them to a graveyards so they can be cleansed. What the dear old wanders don't realise is that more than one can latch onto you and the closer you get to the graveyard the heavier the Myling becomes, thus making it harder for you to get to your destination and then when you stop or give up the Myling eats you." Zane obviously had taken this from a book before arriving.

Dante mouthed and "oh", grateful that he didn't have to take the creature, girl, Myling whatever it was, to a graveyard – the closest one being on the other side of Capulet.

"Why are you even up here anyway?"

Zane looked away, amused.

"I figured that you were bound to call me again, because you're completely useless, so I decided to turn up to save me any extra phone bills."

Dante swore that one day he was going to shoot the angel, again.

"Well, I'm glad you did." Said Kat, she stepped onto the road turning to them, "You saved us."

"Yeah, that's what I do, save people _and_ get the job done."

Dante growled, shoving Zane with his elbow joining Kat as she crossed the road to the Holstead house.

When he passed Zane car he had every intention to kick it, which he did.

.

They were let in by the butler and the mother and daughter were there waiting for him, the mother was clearly distraught standing to her feet, eyes red rimmed and wide as she spotted Dante and Kat walking through the door.

"Did you do it?"

Dante nodded.

"Your demon problem is over ma'am. Officially exorcised."

"Oh thank goodness! I was wondering if I was going to have to move, I could never bring myself to leave this house. Isn't this wonderful news Patricia?"

"Yes mother, now we can stay."

Dante spotted a third person waiting with the mother and daughter, a clean cut suit on a fine looking woman, a decade older than Dante, watched the family exchange with a smile. Dante figured this to be the lawyer.

"Well Mrs Holstead," the lawyer stood, interrupting the daughter. "I'll destroy these papers then and we can continue on with your divorce."

The mother, Mrs Holstead nodded. Turning back to Dante and Kat.

"I apologise but I have to work now, Patricia will see you out, all the money will be sent as soon as I can."

Dante bowed his head grateful that he was going to get paid, and by the look of things well paid too. Patty, now dressed in white and pink trimmed nightgown lead Dante and Kat back to the front door, the girl opened the door wide and stepped out first.

"Chloe says thank-you for getting rid of the demon" she said, a tooth filled smile up at Dante.

"Well, tell her "No problem"." It still unnerved Dante this talk of an imaginary friend.

Patty giggled and looked over to where Zane was stood by the driver's seat of his car waiting for the two teens. She cocked her head to the side.

"Who's he?"

"Him? He's our… boss."

"His wings are pretty." The girl blinked twice, pursed her lips and looked back up to Dante. "Chloe says that his powers hurt him a lot, He's in a lot of pain right now. She says not to do what you did again because he can't always save you, he can't always use his powers because he's only human."

Dante was surprised, Kat beside him confused.

"What do you mean?" asked Kat.

Patty pointed to the angel, "Chloe asks if you can see him like we can, but you must not be able to if you can't see his wings…." She lowered her hand. "Chloe says you need to talk to him about it – you need to see it for yourself like we can."

Dante had just about enough, confused and a little annoyed he was being told what to do by an 8 year olds imaginary friend was not something he'd put on his to do list, still he nodded as if he understood and the two said goodbye to the girl.

"Bye Dante!" Patty waved back and waited patiently by the open door for Dante and Kat to join Zane in the car and for it to drive away before she closed the door and returned inside.

* * *

"So, any reason why you we here Kat?" Zane asked, shifting the car to another gear as the turned a corner to get into town.

"She came to give me a hand," said Dante, lifting his feet up on the dashboard, setting the car seat just right with his right hand. "Didn't think you'd come out to help and you seemed busy on the phone anyway."

"Dante, I'm always busy, chasing after you and your messes with Morrison and keeping me from being sued or reading up on the next lot of monsters likely to invade the town."

"uh huh… Didn't sound like you were doing either." Dante knew he was making things uncomfortable again but right now he didn't care.

"… He's a friend, one who actually helps keep the officials off our backs."

"Whatever..." Dante rolled his upper body to the side, giving him a good view out the window.

A silence settled - an all too familiar occurrence between the Nephilim and _half _angel. Only ending when they arrived back at the shop, Dante growling out that he was going to bed.

* * *

The Nephilim climbed the stairs with a hesitation, as if expecting Kat to climb the metal stairs with him, Zane smirked as Dante realised this wasn't the case and resumed with his decision. He footfalls heard on the balcony as he entered his room.

Zane threw his keys on the desk and slumped into his chair, the pounding in his head stubborn and hadn't changed since he gained it, he rested his head back.

"Zane."

Zane 'hmm'd' in answer.

"I'm sorry."

"What for?" he could time the beating in his head, aching right around the front of his skull. It would only be another few minutes until he would be stuck in the chair for the next 4 hours – unable to move.

"Hurting you."

Zane raised an eyebrow.

"That makes so much sense right now." His eyes rolled back as he felt the numbness start in his legs, in his head he was crying, he hated this.

"The girl, Patty. She said that you were in pain when she saw you, said that when you used your powers it hurts you."

"It''s not that bad." Zane shrugged off Kat's words, cursing as he lost the feeling in his left leg.

"Don't lie to me." Zane watched as Kat stepped around his desk perching on the end.

"I can see you're hiding it, and unlike Dante _I care_. You saved us from wondering around Limbo City without a purpose and gave us one, you gave us a home without asking for anything in return-"

"Dante works for me."

"- he works for Morrison, not you. You give us a lot; you saved me from Limbo and still want nothing."

"Maybe that's just who I am. A very nice half angel."

"You knowingly hurt yourself to save us. I can see it, you're in pain. Why?"

Under those eyes, Zane couldn't lie – he really wasn't very good at it either.

"My angel powers, my blood." He scowled as a burning sensation trailed up his back, running along his ribcage and settling there. "My body is a war ground between my angel counterpart and my humanity, a stupid never ending battle of biology you could say. Accessing my angel powers means my human side gets pushed back, beaten, attacked" Zane didn't really know the words to use. "And when I stop my human side fights back, and I become this, a mess of pain and headaches that don't stop until both sides are at a balance again."

"Is it when you use your wings?" Kat asked.

"No. Not that, the wings are as part of me as they are on any angel, it's when I crossed over to Limbo. When a demon as spiritually powerful as the Myling doesn't want you getting in they _really_ try hard."

"Will you be okay?"

"Yeah, just if you find me unconscious don't panic, it happens sometimes." Zane gave the girl a weak smile, to show he was still okay. Closing his eyes when she stepped away.

_It's going to be a long night._

* * *

"Write something along 7,000 words" I said. "Try and achieve you target this time" I said.

Freaking 4 hours later and I FINALLY get my arse together to finish this chapter and the bloody thing turns out to be 11,000 words! WTH?

Oh. A thanks to those who followed and fav'ed this fiction, it actually really suprised me to find this out and put a little smile to my face. A bigger thank-you to Luluana Di and Beiiiley's for spending the time to review, they came at an even greater shock and I had to make sure I was looking at one of MY fictions and not someone elses. I'm so glad that someone out there likes Zane, I love him ofc but it's always good to see someone else not finding him a mary-sue or just a character that just doesn't work for them.

Reviews are appreciated for this chapter [butt ass freaking longer than i thought it would be, wht in gods name did i do] but i mean seeing the view count of the chapters makes me happy too~ :)

Anywho I've just realised it's 5am.. frick.

[EDIT] I hope the angel wings Zane has aren't too.. typical? I just have this minor liking for mankind with wings in general, I blame it on the anime "The Vision of Escaflowne". However this chapter, I hope, kinda sets Zane out a little more. As in he's not a superman/angel character that you may expect him to be and he WON'T be there to save everyone. Which I kinda like about him, he's a protector of sorts and he wants to be but he knows that with his DNA being half human, he can't. I my take it in a way that Dante gets comfortable about that Zane will just turn up and save his backside when ever, without even realising it, but I'll have to think about if that's true to his DmC character..

I've started working on Kat officially and oh my goodness, I hope I'm doing her right! She's such a hard character to go into, what with writing with Dante's POV most of the time, it's hard to set out the two so differently! I hope the changes between the charaters are noticable as a whole if not I'll start doing that "Dante's POV" etc.

My brother keeps telling me to act like you readers are completely oblivious to the DmC story, but lets be honest, you wouldn't read this if you didn't have some knowledge of DmC right? Right?

OH! & I plan to pull in more action, fights and the like, personally I'm not satisfied with the one in this chapter but I can't really do much else with it. I want Dante to have a fight with Zane [why not?] so then I can really get into my stride, I love fight scenes, but we'll see how the fic writes.

Anywho, i'm currently 3000 words into the next chapter and I've got another wonderful mission lined up for Dante! & Kat ofc. There's less Zane in the next one [which is killing me coz I love him so] & a slight turn in the story's direction so I hope you'll enjoy it!

and this has been a butt long AN, sorry...


	5. Chapter 5: Rougarou

**- CHAPTER 5: IT'S MY WEAKNESS -**

"_Then he looked beyond the thorn bushes, out into the big dark night. Nothing could be further than the sky. I love you right up to the MOON, he said, and closed his eyes. "Oh, that's far," said Big Nutbrown Hare. "That is very, very far."."_

"Read it again!"

Sarah Spence laughed, smiled and closed the book shaking her head and bending over to put the book away under the bedside table. Her little sister pouted and complained that she didn't want to go to sleep just yet, crossing her arms to looks unimpressed as Sarah sat up.

"No, I've got to go to work now."

"But-"

"No buts," Sarah stood, "Now turn off your light and go to sleep okay? Mom will be back later."

"Okay." Sarah's little sister shuffled down her bed and reached over to turn off the light. Sarah pulled a face when she was plunged into darkness.

"Night Sarah."

"Night." Sarah sighed and let herself out closing the door behind her.

Looking down at her watch she read 9:30pm, she had about 20 minutes to get to work for her extra late shift. Thankfully, it'll only take her 10 minutes to walk to Love Planet.

She stepped across the hall into her room and pulled on a clean shirt and navy skirt, not bothering to tuck the shirt in, she hated that stuffy feeling ever since she joined high school – where a compulsory uniform required this ugly blue and white "shopkeeper" shirt and black skirt that had to be no higher than knee length. She grabbed her fur trimmed puffer jacket from her bed and stepped back out into the hall towards the front door, handbag in hand.

She hesitated for a moment debating whether or not to leave the lights on in the hall, it wasn't like Capulet was a dangerous place.

She left them on anyway and called out to her sister that she was leaving. She opened the door to the apartment and exited the home, locking the door behind her.

Sarah and her family lived on the only apartment block in the town, unlike the blocks in the city this one had the interior design expected of a library or something along the sort. Sarah always wondered how they managed to keep the tiled floor, plants and lights all so clean and well-tended to.

Not that she complained.

She made her way to the elevator, putting on the jacket and dropping her keys into her bag. Fingers grasped hold of her purse and she poked inside, she needed to draw out more cash.

Exiting her apartment block she took and immediate turn into the car park, only to curse herself and remember that her mother had taken her car to the local hospital.

_Just the one day that mom decides to get her car MOT'd._

Accepting that she now had to walk she turned out of the car park, receiving a confused look from the security guard.

She crossed the road and began to make her way through the dark streets of Capulet to Love Planet, illuminated only when she walked the main streets and by any passing cars.

A wind blew and she zipped up her jacket, cursing herself that she was going to have to walk home too.

She passed a 24/7 store on a second street way and found herself darting around a couple as they exited the shop.

"We need to find him Elliot. I can't have him walking around this damn town any longer than he already has." Said the woman.

"Yeah, I'm working on it."

Sarah kept walking, noting the stress and trouble that laced through the woman's voice, her business suit a little too clean for someone who'd been working all day and the rugged, beggar like look to her male companion. Who was also carrying 2 6packs.

"You have another day Elliot." Said the woman.

Her reply was lost in the sound of an oncoming car, Sarah knowing that it wasn't her place to continue to listen to their loud discussion.

She continues on, realising that she only had 10 minutes to get to Love Planet.

She hurries in her pace, noticing that the lampposts on this street have all died.

_Odd_.

She quickly becomes unnerved, being used to walking down this street with friends, both sober and not, and having something to guide her. She remembers that there's a giant grid with the weirdest of holes in the middle of the pavement that she's tripped over one too many times.

She crossed the metal without realising stopping dead right on top of it as she suddenly hears movement from within an alley to her right.

It was weird, the noise was like a cat pushing against the huge dumpster, but a huge cat.

She realised that if she went down there she'd end up at that Italian restaurant just on the other side of the block- but for some reason the lights from the restaurant weren't shining through. It is almost as if…

Someone was standing in front of them.

Sarah feels a weight hit her, then warmth and the cement on her back as she falls to the ground. Feet flying high as something padded and wet grabs onto the beak of her right leg. Her body lets out a short scream, cut off as she breathes in shaking, she feels something fall to the ground, a heavy weight shaking the floor, in front of her. And as the light from that Italian restaurant suddenly appear again, Sarah sees it.

A giant wolf.

To anyone watching the action would see the human chest and arms. But it wasn't like Sarah could herself, paying attention to the twin rows of sharp canines between snarling lips.

She screamed and kicked at the creature, black trainers hitting at the beast's chest, as she scrambled to pull herself to her feet, grabbing her handbag in weak fingers.

The creature wasn't fazed at the hit, looking down at where her foot had touched it and cocking a head to the side. Hearing her desperate cries to take hold of her bag the creature snarled and grabbed hold of her leg, a fierce grip that causes Sarah to cry out in pain. Blood cut off and the thought that the creature was going to snap her leg in half passing through Sarah's mind. Sarah found her shirt riding up and a new clod reach her skin, she realised that the creature was dragging her into the alley. Out of sight from any passer-by.

Sarah twisted around screaming out for someone to help, louder than she thought she could scream coherently and with her other leg she kicked at the creatures hold swearing at the beast.

"Help!"

As she feels her shirt begin to rise at the back and her skirt rips at the side she fights harder, kicking at anything she could to try to get the creature off her.

"Help! Someone!"

Two pairs of footsteps sound throughout the alley and before Sarah knows it a flash of white light surrounds her, a torch or a car light, it blinds her eyes and she pulls away. She feels her leg fall to the ground and the creatures presence back away from her, snarling and biting at the light source.

Sarah felt a sweeping motion cross over her skin and a moment of peace surround her.

She instantly blacked out.

* * *

About 15 hours later Sarah woke up in her bed, dressed in her nightgown and her bedroom window open just slightly.

She blinked, mind quiet before she realised where she was and instantly shot up, swinging forward when that sudden ache hit her from sitting up too fast. She pulled the covers off, looking over her bedroom. Her work clothes were in her hamper, her handbag on her desk by her computer and her university prospectuses.

She stood up, tripping over her rug and made her way to her desk, she opened the bag and checked inside, wallet, keys, make up, chewing gum, that piece of paper with that cute guy's name on.

_Nothing was taken?_

She turned to the hamper and went over to investigate, as her memory supplied her clothes were dirtied and her skirt ruined.

_What the holy hell happened last night?_

She remembered the wolf, thing, and that sudden light before she collapsed.

She quickly changed, hearing her mother moving around in the kitchen, and pulled up her hair into a bun – she'll clean herself up later she'd decided.

Stepping out she heard the news in the lounge and walked down the hall to the open plan room.

"Sarah," her little sister, Ellie, bounced up on the sofa to her, the local news playing on the screen. "Hi."

"Morning." Sarah went over to the kitchen greeting her mother in a similar fashion.

"So, how was work?" her mother asked, pulling down the dishwasher door.

"Fine, normal night really." Sarah then realised that she'd probably not gone to work that night. she cursed herself.

"Good."

Sarah turned to the TV, as her little sister began talking to her mother. She then realised that the woman on the TV was talking about a... murder? She walked over, stepping over the back of the couch and grabbing the control off the coffee table to turn the volume up. She barely registered her sister talking next to her.

"Police have released that last night a murder occurred in the port town of Capulet late last night. It is believed that at 10:20 last night the family home of the D'Alro's was broken into and the family murdered. There were no witnesses to the crime and some police officials are denying it's not a murder but an animal attack. Shelly Wisconsin reports at the scene of the crime."

The screen turns to the next reporter a dark haired woman looking at the screen.

"Thank you, I am here just outside the home of the D'Alro's a small pace that was home to a young couple and their baby girl just a few blocks away from the famous local Italian restaurant in Capulet. Initial reports given out just a few hours ago say that the family was indeed killed by some sort of large animal, police are suspecting it to be some sort of wolf or cougar that wondered into town. But what has baffled the police is that if it was an animal then the creature must've been let in by someone which has now led to the idea of a premeditated murder."

"People are saying that it's one of these so called '_Demons'_ Shelly, anything about that on your side?" the woman reporter in the studio obviously didn't believe that claim.

"It has come up when we interviewed one of the cops behind the case, a Mr Wildfore earlier on today. He said that the speculation that it is demons is very unlikely and that it was probably the premeditated murder-"

Sarah blanched, swallowing and turned the volume back down, placing the controller on the table.

_A wolf? Cougar? They don't live anywhere near here anymore… what if, what if it was a demon though? That thing that attacked me last night wasn't a bloody wolf!_

Sarah stood up, and ignoring the calls of her mother ran back to her room, she pulled on the clothes she wore yesterday and a hoodie and made her way to the front door.

"Where are you going Sarah?" Ellie asked, bouncing up with her rabbit toy in hand.

"Just out quickly. I'll be back in no time."

"Okay."

Sarah called out to her mother that she was leaving, ignoring the question if she was passing the supermarket.

She hurried out of the apartment, with only one place in mind.

That demon hunting shop just down from Love Planet.

* * *

"Dante, if you don't clean up Zane won't be happy."

"He's never happy." Dante threw the empty beer can behind him to the bin, hearing it hit the floor instead, he adjust his head on the sofa and crossed his feet. "Where the hell is he anyway?"

"With a friend." Said Kat.

"Bet you it's one of the fucking kind. Why the hell I gotta stay here anyway? Why can't I go out?"

"We were told to watch the shop."

"So? Not like anyone's gonna turn up, Morrison's the only one I get any jobs from anyway."

"Someone might walk in."

"Doubt it." Dante reached into his six pack and pulled out another can. Cracking the lid, he looked up at the ceiling.

It had been a week since the Holstead mission, a long boring week for Dante. No jobs from Morrison, seeing as the guy was across state, and when Dante asked if Zane had any other contractors Zane quickly denied it and said "Even if I had they wouldn't like you anyway.". Dante had spent the past week drinking, fixing up his weapons and denying all "advice" given to him to read up on his demons by the angel. In the end Zane had just about given up trying to get the Nephilim to educate himself.

Kat however had taken the offer, and was currently working through a book on spirits with another two by her side – that Zane had said would help her with her with knowledge on "How to kill stuff on this side of the realms".

Dante shifted, placing the beer can on the table and contemplated fixing up his guns again, not that he hadn't down that yesterday, or the day before.

Then an idea hit him.

"Think he'd realise if I went snooping through his desk."

Kat looked up.

"Probably. What you going to do?"

"Nothing." Dante pulled himself to his feet, cleaning his hands on his slacks and headed over to the oak furniture, he placed himself down on the chair and amused smile as he decided on which drawer to open first.

He saw Kat watch him, shake her head and carry on reading.

Dante pulled out a draw to his left, satisfied to see a laptop inside.

"Bingo."

He pulled the tech out and lifted up the lid, the laptop was already turned on and immediately Dante felt himself turn annoyed.

The freaking angel had left a message for him.

TOUCH THIS AND WE'LL SEE IF YOU NEPHILIM ARE CAPABLE HEALING FROM WHAT ILL DO TO YOU.

Had Dante just met the angel he'd laugh and try to gain access, but now, nearly three weeks living at the shop and with the _half_ angel – Dante had to remind himself that – and he knew the threat was real.

"What's wrong?" asked Kat noticing Dante put the laptop away.

"If I tried anything I don't think what happens after will be pretty."

Kat laughed lightly, turning back to her book.

Dante, defeated closed the draw and moved onto the one on the other side; he half opened the draw and noticed a picture inside when the front door of the shop opened. It chimes sounding throughout the room.

Dante snapped the draw closed and shot out of the seat, thinking it was the angel, when he saw the more than worn out woman dressed in trackies and a hoodie he relaxed and sat back down.

"Hey there." He called.

"Hey."

Kat placed down her book, keeping it open to her page and gave the woman a smile.

"Can we help you?" Dante asked, unsure of what he was supposed to say.

"Umm, yeah, I mean I think you can. I don't know." She closed the door and stepped forward. "I have a job, a request, I don't know but I think there's a demon."

"Demon?"

"A monster, a big, hairy, ugly werewolf, and I think… I think it's killed people."

"And you'd know this how?" Dante gestured for her to continue.

"It attacked me, well I'm sure it did, and I think it killed those people last night."

"Well can't be that dangerous if someone like you managed to fend it off."

The woman pulled a face.

"I didn't, something else did, some sort of light just-" she realised how stupid she sounded. "I don't even know."

Kat motioned to the sofa Dante has previously occupied.

"How about you sit down and tell us."

The woman nodded and with a short hesitation made her way over, Kat called Dante to join them.

"Start from the beginning." Said Kat moving her books to the table so Dante could sit next to her.

* * *

Dante immediately recognised the woman as the bartender from the night with the Rusalka to which the woman gave them her name and told them of what happened to her the previous night.

"Weird story." Dante commented when Sarah finished.

"You're telling me."

"It sounds like we're after a werewolf Dante."

"They exist? Thought they only appeared in weird ass movies like 'The Howling' or 'Underworld'." Dante threw his third beer that day into the trashcan, missing it completely.

"Zane's books say they exist."

"And we gonna trust everything that guy says."

"He's not stupid Dante, and if it makes you feel any better I think it's a werewolf just by hearing the story - not from Zane's books."

Dante huffed, annoyed.

"So, you think you can kill it?" Sarah asked.

"Probably, silver does the trick right?" said Dante.

Kat nodded.

"That's what we've been led to believe."

"Then well go with that. Now all you gotta do is pay up." Dante leaned forward hand out to Sarah. "I'm not doing this for free you know."

Sarah was shocked and her mouth dropped.

"ME? Pay you? You're doing a service for the town if you do this not to mention the people you'll safe."

"And 'the people' interest me not, pay up."

"Dante-" Kat lay her hand on the Nephilim's leg, "just do the job."

"But-"

"I'll tell you the password to Zane's computer." Baited Kat.

"eh.." Dante closed his hand to a fist and dropped his hand, knowing the password meant internet access; internet access meant everything Dante could dream of, well sort of. "Done." Dante shot to his feet. "Let's go kill ourselves a werewolf."

"Don't you need silver?" asked Sarah, watching as Dante went to grab his guns from on top of the new pool table.

"Zane's got some bullets in the cabinet over there." Kat pointed to the normally locked cabinet next to the bookcase under the stairs.

"Just grab the bullets and we're good to go."

* * *

Sarah swore, today wasn't as good as she hoped it would be. She'd taken Dante back to the spot she was attacked, catching herself looking at where she'd been dragged across the pavement and remembering the stone cold ground scratching at her chest and back. Dante sadi that he couldn't see anything, and had quickly dismissed Sarah's claims.

Sarah had argued, saying that he can't just look at the scene she was attacked in just once and decide that this job was a "waste of time." She tried reasoning with the girl, Kat, and she received next to no comment, not even a glance.

Sarah kicked at a can; one of those Virility drinks. Sarah remembered trying the drink once and instantly regretting it, she'd never tasted anything so disgustingly sweet in her life.

_This sucks.._

After having declared the job a fake Dante quickly left, complaining about having to walk back to the shop. Kat followed him, without a single word.

Sarah honestly felt a little stupid.

A part of her wished she'd never gone, mostly because _damn_, she was so embarrassed. She had this stupid feeling that Dante was laughing at her back at the shop, saying how much of an idiot she was and that the werewolf was just her imagination or her hallucinating, maybe all that late night blogging and working had finally got to her.

The other part of her wished that she'd gone to the guy who actually owned the place instead, Dezone's "Angel" as she calls him. From the sound of it Sarah hoped that he'd at least have listened to her and maybe, if anything, played along to get rid of this horrible gut wrenching feeling she had.

Or maybe that's because she's hungry.

Never the less, a day on from Dante and Kat walking out on her Sarah sighed, her body on "auto-pilot" as she made her way to work to start on the first shift of the day. Her phone told her it was 17:39, she would be a little early to the club but at least it gave her enough time to find her boss and apologise for not being there two nights ago.

_If I'm lucky maybe she won't be here tonight, no better, didn't realise I wasn't even there._

The day light turned into an early evening around her as she walked, finding herself back on the same street as before- passing the shop, that grid and the alley. Surprisingly she didn't feel on edge, expecting another attack.

She turned into the block of roads that would lead her directly to the back of Love Planet, a series of high warehouse conversions and attached housing loomed on both side, with small front gardens and a community park on the end of the road. Sarah pulled up her hoodie pushing her hair out of her face as she neared the end of the road and to the park.

A snap behind her stopped her still, she hesitated to hide herself behind the conveniently placed tree just to her right or to turn around and see what had made that noise.

Her heart beat faster as the snapping noise broke her thoughts and sounded closer than before.

She stepped back once, her body turning. She made it half way when she realised what was behind her.

That Wolf.

She broke into a run, hearing jaws snap and a howl behind her before the four paws joined her footsteps in a run. She made her way to the park, finding the strangest of energy in her, enough to be able to jump over the fence that surrounded the park [albeit tripping as she left a foot behind]. She heard the creature crash into the metal bars, and it too climbing up and in, sounding heavy on the grass. Sarah didn't bothered screaming, running across the park and over the next fence towards Love Planet. She wasn't seeing this, she had to get to safety, she had to get to Dante.

Her foot landed on the ground awkwardly as she reached the road and she felt a sharp ache cut through her lower leg, she limped two strides before gaining control of herself and pushing on, ignoring the pain every time she put her foot to the tar. She jumped up to the curb and turned a corner, hearing the creature slam its shoulder into the brick wall, slowing its chase briefly. She saw the back of Love Planet, hearing the heavy bass and the sound of the people outside, she made a right and cut around the building behind it. She didn't want the creature anywhere near people.

She saw a cut in the street that would take her back to the main road that Love Planet and Devil Hunting both sat on, and without thinking turned down that street, she didn't register the creature reaching out to her, missing her by a few inches.

She ran out to the main road, right foot stopping her as she turned left, chest threatening to tighten up, heart going so fast Sarah wouldn't be surprised if she collapsed, the nausea and dizziness beginning to settle and cloud her head.

A part of her was glad she'd been in the track team back in high school, especially if it meant that it got her this far.

She saw the shop, and even as she lost all feeling in her legs expect the burn that rested in her thighs, she sped up as best as she could, grasping hold on the stairs as she fell onto them and climbed them up to the door. She slammed the door open and crawled off to the side, out of the way should the creature follow her in. Her entrance wasn't ignored, Kat had shot to her feet at Sarah's entrance. The book on her lap thrown to the ground, Dante was by the pool table – _that wasn't there yesterday _– cue in hand with another male taking a shot.

"Sarah?" Kat, ran over to her stopped when Sarah screamed out.

"It's here!" Sarah's voice cracked and she her body shuddered as it struggled to catch up, she swallowed heavy, head swinging as she felt her stomach go as if she was about to be sick. She lifted a hand to her mouth and breathed in heavily, she had to calm herself quickly. Warn them that the wolf was after her again.

A wet hand grabbed onto her arm and the next thing Sarah new was the stone stairs meeting her face. She screamed out as best as she could and tried to struggle against the hold.

"Help me!"

Fear had rid her of the nausea, but now all she could feel was the creatures grip and the stone below her.

* * *

Dante threw down the cue, and ran out after Sarah. He watched as this big, hulking black form had literally picked her up by one hand and held her off the ground until it was outside, only to then drop her and drag her down the stairs, disregarding them completely.

Kat called out to him but he didn't listen, he jumped the stairs and charged at the creature, pulling back a fisted hand ready to strike. He was met with fur and muscle in the face, sending him flying back to the stairs. Dante heard his ribs fracture under the force; he pulled himself to his feet and tried another tactic. Running up to the creature and darting around to its front to lay a upper cut across it's jaw, Dante dodged another attack from the creatures hand as he neared and moved around to the front punching the creature with enough force to break a man's neck.

The creature was unfazed, head twisting only by the slightest of movement, it's red eyes blinked, lips curling. Sarah's body fully fell to the floor as the creature let go of her and targeted Dante. It snarled, biting at the air to show its fangs and growled; long deep rumbling that started in its chest and moved up. The creature stood at its full height a foot higher than Dante and looked down, eyes gleaming with amusement at over how it towered over the Nephilim, Dante stared back up, jaw set and fists clenched, through his own eyes Dante told the creature he wasn't going to back down.

The creature lashed out, curved claws striking across Dante's chest missing as the Nephilim stepped back. Dante countered quickly, a fist to the creatures face and a knee to hit at the chest. He cursed as his knee met the side of the creature as it twisted away from him, making the impact nullified and useless. Dante stepped back and considered the creature, Sarah was right, between the dog face and the human features this things was definitely a werewolf of sorts.

The creature lunged at him, Dante barely having enough time to dodge; he danced around the creature, mindful of Sarah's weak and prone body on the floor. He landed a few more hits, his body acting on instinct from the experience he'd gained from fighting against demons and the law. He was surprised at the werewolf in front of him, it was taking enough damage to kill a human man four times over and it was acting as if Dante was an annoying fly that deserved to be squashed.

Dante stepped back, foot suddenly losing its place on the ground as the mud underneath it gave way, the Nephilim cursed and fell back. Head knocking against the concrete. Dante heard the creature fall to all fours and step towards him, a haze covered his sight and all Dante could see was the black shape near his feet. Dante was about to lift a foot to kick the creature away, when a gunshot sounded through the street. The werewolf's growls were silenced. The next thing Dante seeing, as his sight came back, the creature falling to its side, slumped and heavy with clear bullet shot through the head.

Dante shook his head, rubbing at his eyes with his index finger and thumb, blinking at the creature seeing the low sun lighting up the red blood that ran through fur to the ground. Dante breathed out, climbing to his feet, he saw Zane over by Sarah picking her up in both arms, a silver handgun looped through his belt.

The angel swiftly lifted the girl and motioned for Dante to drag the creature inside.

Dante found the creature easy to move, as if the creature had next to no weight in it. He pulled it up the steps; a blood trail left as evidence, and threw it to the floor, lying in the middle of the main room. Kat closed the door behind him.

"You alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, damn thing."

"Zane said that the only way you can kill it is a silver bullet to the head."

"Would've been nice to know that before you know."

Kat smiled.

"I did try to tell you."

Zane placed Sarah on the sofa, kneeling down next to her, Dante watched as he began to unclothe her.

"H-Hey!" Dante looked away as the half angel pulled off her shoes and tights, unfazed by where his hands were going, "You can't just do that." Dante stepped forward to go and stop the half angel, he stopped just by the back of the sofa when he saw the huge bite mark on her leg.

"What the-?"

"It must've done it when it took her out." The angel cursed. "What's her name?"

Dante stared at the bite, a twin curved set of fang marks deep in her skin for each jaw.

"Sarah."

"Sarah." Zane placed a hand on her arm, shaking her gently, "Sarah, you need to wake up. Sarah."

Sarah whimpered, head turning to the angel, she opened her eyes weakly, blinking a few times.

"You're the one Dezone talks about," she smiled, seemingly laughed to herself, a hand reaching up to rub at her forehead. "My head is killing me."

"How are you feeling?" Zane removed his hand. "Do you feel sick or anything?"

"N-no. What's going on?" She looked around. "That werewolf, where is it?"

"Dead." Zane glanced over to the creature as it lay in the centre of the room.

"You killed it? Wasn't seeing things then."

Dante watched as Zane shook his head, brushing her hair out of her face.

"There's just a small problem," he looked down to her leg. "It bit you as it took you away, if I don't heal you you'll become just like it."

"Just like in the legends..." Sarah didn't seem scared, Dante figured she was still dazed.

"Yes, I need you to stay here tonight while I look up a cure, I'll watch over you okay."

"Okay." Sarah's eyes fluttered, her energy drained, she closed her eye for the briefest of moments before snapping them open.

"The creature, where is it?"

"Over there," Dante pointed behind him with a thumb, a gesture unseen by Sarah, "Just like he said, dead."

"Good, then no one else has to die..." Sarah's head rolled to the side as she fell asleep, or unconscious - Dante couldn't tell.

Zane leaned back, standing up with a groan. He walked over to his small library, pulling out his handgun and placing it down on the side.

"Kat, give me a hand here will you?"

Kat walked up to the half angel, taking hold of a book he passed her. Dante, for a moment, felt left out.

"Watch her, and the creature." Zane ordered.

"I thought you said it was dead," Dante looked back to the werewolf.

"There's always a maybe when dealing with creatures like them."

_Them? There's more of these things?_

Dante leaned back against the sofa, crossing his arms. He heard Sarah shift behind him.

"You don't think it's a werewolf?" asked Kat.

"No. Look up Rougarou in this."

Dante heard Kat drop her first book and pick up a second.

"It's a type of shape shifter, one that naturally stands on its hind legs unlike its werewolf cousins that stand on all fours. Would also explain why this one was after Sarah."

"huh?" Kat, opened up the book flicking through the pages as Zane put his and her previous book back and picked up his gun.

"Werewolves are more like dogs, hunt in packs and dig up bones and stuff, eat from the recently dead. Rougarou's live as humans by day, turn at night – where the whole turning at night comes from."

"And all that stuff about the full moon?" asked Dante.

"If you ask me it's a load of crap, built up on those old movies from the 1900's"

Kat pointed to a page in her book, Dante hearing her finger touch the paper.

"Any cures for it?" Zane asked.

"By biting another human to pass on the disease or to wait 101 days for it to pass."

Zane hmm'd and turned back to Dante, plucking up the book from Kats hands and reading the page she was on.

"Biting a human would pass on the disease to them though." Said Kat.

"Then, she won't bite a human."

* * *

When Sarah woke up early the next morning she was obviously disorientated at first, confused and with a headache enough to question what she'd been drinking the night before. She grabbed hold of her head with one hand the other up to touch this strange ticklish feeling on her leg. She opened her eyes and looked down, her fingers touching tender, pink skin that formed some sort of huge dog bite on her leg. She questioned the strange injury briefly, muttering to herself as her brain finally realised where she was.

A red sofa that smelt of blood and alcohol, a coffee table to her side void of books from the day before and old wooden flooring.

I'm still at the shop.

She pulled herself up, using the back of the sofa to help her, eyes darted around the room to see it was void of mess, unlike when she'd first entered the shop, and the man from last night was sat at the desk to her far left. He looked up when she moved, tired eyes looking concerned.

"You're up." He seemed surprised, grateful even. "How do you feel?" His voice was soft, low but still it grated at Sarah's ears.

"I'm fine, I just feel a little sick." She then realised something, eyes widening as realisation hit her. She didn't speak, just stared.

The man seemed to notice her gaze to behind him, eyebrows pulled together. "What- oh." He smiled. "Don't worry, it's just new blood going through you, it'll pass in a few hours."

"Blood? But. What? You have-"

"Wings? It's just a hallucination, side effects from the infection caused by the bite." Said Zane looking to her bitten leg.

"Infection?" she remembered the creature from last night. "That was a werewolf! I should be…"

The man looked surprised, then frustrated sighing heavily and rubbing at his temples, the so called "wings" Sarah could see lowered, she realised how huge they were, reaching around either side of the desk and, pretty much, on the floor.

"So you know about what that thing was then?" he asked

"Of course I do. No normal animal could be anything like that! It wasn't human, or a dog, it was a werewolf, a demon!"

"Rougarou, to be exact. Okay, since you know that there are such things as monsters." He looked up, hands placed down on the desk. "Everything you've heard, about the demons and the like, it's all true. That _thing_ from last night… is an unexplainable creature born from a strange kick off of evolution or a demon itself – I'm not sure."

"So... Demons _do_ exist?"

The man nodded, lips tight as he concentrated. Sarah was a little shocked, body still recovering from the evening before and now realising that all those rumours were true…

_Wait a second._

"Why should I even trust you?" Sarah demanded, feet placing themselves on the ground. "You're a complete stranger to me – I don't even know your name."

"Then don't believe me…" it was a quick and dismissive answer, that Sarah thought was too… expected. In the movies this would be the moment when he'd prove to her that demons really did exist and defeat them in a swift flurry of attacks and gunfire, she'd then fall into his arms saying he was right all along and that she'd trusted him and would never leave his side because she loved him and – wait. What?

She needed to get out her inner movie queen

"But-"

"Zane."

"Huh?"

He smiled, "My name, it's Zane, Zane Crusade."

"Sarah Spence." It was so weird, they were now talking as if she'd just sat down by him in the coffee shop. "So, demons are real then? And monsters? Like that werewolf-"

"Rougarou, werewolves are a little more dog like."

"-Rougarou. If demons are real, does Hell exist?" she had to ask, it didn't make sense if demons were real but Hell wasn't. The Bible said that Lucifer created the demons right? And if Hell was real then that meant that there could be thousands, millions, of demons, monsters too.

"Hell does exist, but we're safe from it. Don't worry."

Sarah nodded her head, muttering an "okay".

"If it helps, heaven is real too."

"It is?" Sarah watched as Zane linked his fingers together, lips curling into a smirk.

"Yeah. Angels exist, not as many as the demons, but we do exist."

"We?"

"Well, you obviously can see them." His head cocked to the side. "I'm only half of one though, I don't officially count."

"Oh."

"How you feeling?"

"A little dazed, tired I guess… So, err, I guess that I was bitten by that Rougarou right? Am I one too?"

She'd only seen a few movies on werewolves, most of them a bunch of crap movies that her ex had made her watch with him, and in every one of them if someone was bitten they became a werewolf too.

"You're fine. Rougarou's are easy to cure; you just had to bite someone else to pass on the infection."

"Who'd I bite?"

"Dante." Said Zane who seemed to take great enjoyment from mentioning the other man's name, Sarah concluded that Dante was forced into her biting him, not that she actually remembers biting anyone herself.

_Oh, this is making my head hurt even more._

"Is he infected?" asked Sarah.

Zane shook his head.

"He's special, a half breed like me." Said Zane. "It's all over and when you're strong enough you can leave. I promise you that this will never happen again."

"Will I keep seeing stuff like that?"

"Rougarou's or the wings?"

"Both." Said Sarah.

"Rougarou's are uncommon creatures and I doubt that anymore will turn up seeing as I killed the last one, the whole third sight you have will go in a few hours, just like a said before."

Sarah nodded, watching as Zane gave her a final smile before turning to something on his desk, picking up a pen and began writing. She turned so she face the back wall, the coffee table in front of her with its broken leg glued back together and it's battered marking on its edges. She ran a hand over a grove.

_I need to get home, think this through… I wish I never questioned him._

_All this talk about demons and monsters, this man, Zane being an angel? Who comes up with this sort of thing? Who? how? __**It's not real.**_

The sound of movement brought Sarah back to Zane, the wings mostly.

_I can see them, I am seeing them right now, it's real, he's real, they're real, that __**thing**__ was definitely real. No one can make something like that so real, so lifelike… God I'm going insane, absolutely mad, I need a break a long hard break. Like a week off, no a month, no, a year, then I can pretend that this never happened and that that thing was never real and that I never got bitten and I never had to see that angels exist and…angel's exist, angels are real. That means God Is real right? It wouldn't make sense if God isn't real, he created angels first, Lucifer is the devil, he fell from God's grace didn't he? Created demons. Oh god I wished I'd paid more attention in RS [religious studies] class._

Sarah stood up, seeing her bag by the end of the sofa, she picked it up with unsteady legs and weak hand, holding it by the strap in the crook of her elbow. She stepped over to the desk, hearing the sound of a door opening with an accompanying male groan.

She stopped just in front of it watching brown feathers shift further away from her.

"Thank-you." She said.

"It what we do." Zane picked up his phone not looking at her.

"'kay."

Light brown moved in her vision, the wings relaxing just a little closer than they were a few seconds ago, her free hand reached up to touch the feathers, as soon as she felt them the entire wing pulled back with such speed Sarah jumped back. Zane snapped his head up, he looked upset.

"I'm sorry" said Sarah hastily.

"I'm the one who scared you. I'm sorry" Said Zane, "I don't normally let people touch them."

"Why?"

"Because they're a weakness."

_Weakness?_

Sarah watched as Zane turned back to his work, she stepped away noticing Dante watching from above, a towel wrapped around his waist, water dripping from soaking hair. She smiled, gave a small wave and stepped out of the shop. When she reached the bottom of the stairs she turned around, looking up at the broken sign and muttered a simple thanks before stepping away and back down the street to Love Planet, aiming to go home.

_Mother is going to kill me when I get back._

* * *

When Dante stepped out of the shower, he heard Sarah talking with Zane, he ddn't bother paying attention, only when he stepped out feeling relaxed did he bother.

"Thank-you" said Sarah, she was still wearing the same get up from last night, minus her tights, Zane must've put her shoes back on though.

"It's what we do." Said Zane, Dante could see he was paying attention to something on his screen, even a floor above them all Dante could see the text the angel was reading.

I'VE GOT IT. WORKING ALL DAY, TRY IT OUT LATER?

"'kay."

Dante watched as, predictably, she reached out to touch his wings, wings that Dante couldn't actually see right now. He didn't know why, so don't ask. When the angel pulled back the two talked in apologetic tones broken only when Zane mentioned that his fluffy brown wings of - Dante had yet to think of an offensive enough name for them – were a weakness.

_Is this guy trying to sound like some dumbass cool guy from the movies?_

Dante raised an eyebrow at the comment, stopping himself from rolling his eyes and saying something. Sarah pulled back and noticed him watching from above, giving him a wave, which he returned, before leaving.

Dante watched as the angel replied to the text – SURE, GIMME A CALL WHEN YOURE DONE – setting the phone down and going back to his work.

"Weakness huh?"

Zane groaned, placing down his pen for a second time.

"Well, it's not like they serve me any purpose other than getting in my way."

"Thought it all came with being an angel" said Dante.

"_Half._"

"Same thing." Dante waved a hand dismissing Zane's attempt at separating him from regular angels, like his mother - Eva. "You're a person from heaven, a "child of God", you have wings just like all the other Angels have."

"Yes, but on this plane of existence wings allow angels to protect people, travel from the world of God to this one. In ancient Egyptian the word "ba" means a person's soul, their personality if you want, and in hieroglyphics it's represented as a bird with a human head. That is true, wings are a representation of an angels's soul. Believe it or not but you rip them off and you'd kill an angel faster than ripping their chest open and eating what's inside."

Dante felt his skin run cold from the link to his mother.

"But it gives them power, power of heaven, it makes them stronger, faster, warriors good enough to serve their God."

"And what does that have to do with them making you weak?" asked Dante.

"Because mine don't give me that power. They're just an extra set of limbs, excuse me sounding like a **whining bitch** but, I have absolutely _no_ reason to have them other than it's in my blood to do so. I wish I could just be rid of them."

"Wouldn't it hurt?"

"It wouldn't be enough to kill me."

Zane turned in his seat, looking up at Dante.

"But at least they serve a purpose of saving Kat when you fail to do so."

* * *

Sarah turned the corner, a weight that she never knew was there lifted off her chest, a smile that was beginning to hurt at her cheeks, she felt just as good as when she got that offer by that cute guy in the club a few nights ago – forgive her she's lived a sheltered life. She passed her favourite coffee shop, noting that it's only 9:30 from the old clock held outside.

That when she spots her, the woman who came out of the 24/7 shops when she first encountered the Rougarou – the now very dead Rogarou. Sarah doubled checked herself; the same face, the same hair tied up in a bun, a clean cut business suit, it was defiantly her.

Sarah went up to her pace slowing as she came closer, the woman stopped reading her documents and looked up to Sarah.

"Can I help you?" the woman smiled, small sincere.

"Err yeah, I was wondering, if you were the one that helped me a few nights ago, when that thing attacked me."

The woman seemed to study Sarah for a moment, until she lit up in realisation.

"Oh yes! That was me and my friend, you have to excuse me I've been a little distracted to recall it but, it was definitely some sort of animal wasn't it?"

_You could say that.._

"Yeah, heard it's no longer around or something."

"Oh yes, I was at the police station earlier looking for someone and I overheard one of the investigators mention the case was now closed."

"That's good, a little scary hearing what that thing did on the news hey?"

The woman nodded, smile still present.

"So.. who are you looking for?" Sarah felt at ease with the woman, and couldn't help but be curious.

"Oh just a friend, I have something to give to him but it seems that he's not signed up with any of the housing and mortgage companies or is someone the police know of."

"Well I know a few off the line people, maybe I know him?"

"Maybe.." the woman reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a photo. "This is him, it's from about 5 years ago."

Sarah took the photo turning it around, she immediately recognised the face.

"Oh, that's Zane," she looked up to the woman, "he runs this shop just down from Love Planet, I was just with him."

"So he is here? That's brilliant news!" The woman took to photo back quickly putting it away looking happy at the news. "A shop you say?"

"Yeah, you just go to Love Planet and then two block down from it is his shop 'Demon Hunting' I think it's called."

"That's wonderful news, I'll have to drop by once I've finished this then. Thank-you-"

"Sarah."

"Thank-you Sarah" the woman reached out her hand. "I'm Sophia." Sarah took hold and the two shook hands

"Nice to meet you," Sarah looked at her watch. "Ah, I've got to go, thank-you for helping me that night though!"

"No problem."

Sarah waved goodbye and made her way up the street, unknowing that as soon as she left Sophia grabbed her phone and called someone, her smile calculating and amused.

Sophia was quickly answered.

"I found him."

* * *

FML, characterisation just FLEW out the window in this chapter, I blame Sarah.. I really don't know what's going on with her.

uggghhh, I GIVE UP!

Still, more angel talk - I always feel a little 'camp' [as in style not the tent version] when I go into the angel stuff in this, must be because angels are presented as being very effeminate in media and the like - except in Supernatural. I want to move from that though, so just please don't judge?

But, I recently found out that Egyptians had a concept for the soul, divided into 5 seperate parts for each component. It's really interesting to read up on so I **had** to have Zane mention it.

And I'm sorry for some POV changes not having those line breaks, sometimes they just spaz out and just fail, also, MINI STORY DEVELOPMENT IN LAST SCENE! Sophia is my bitch, as in she is one - within good reason - not a female dog, and she's gonna be basically messing things up and causing havoc, becasue she can! Dante's not going to like it and try to stop her while Kat's going to try and figure out what going on [remember random deaths from newspaper 2 chapter back?] & Zane, well, we'll see, but sadly he's still going to be around and taking up precious Dante & Kat space. [not sorry] I think it's something about Sophia wanting to talk to him, or kill him.

thanks for reading.


	6. Chapter 6: Sophia

_**- CHAPTER 6: SOPHIA -**_

_When Dante awoke, he smelt the empty air, tasted seawater on his dry lips, heard the sound of dripping water and when his eyes opened, was in a world of ice and silver._

_His body was down on the ground, the ice floor seeping to touch his skin through his shirt but did not leave it wet or cold. His fingers didn't freeze nor did he feel the touch of wind on his skin. _

_Dante pulled himself to his feet, checking himself down and brushing off flecks of white dust off him. He realised that it was ice, the gentlest of touches upon it as he looked on his sleeve. He noticed it didn't feel like ice, but melted as if it was. He looked to his feet, picking his left one up and inspecting the soles, they lacked the expected fine sheen of water. As he placed his foot down the ground underneath him cracked, loud and fast to his ears making him jump away expecting the ground to fall out from underneath him. As he landed the cracks happened again, and again, and again as he stepped. The Nephilim realised that it was just sound, there was nothing happening, no breaking of the ground, no sinking._

_Dante looked at where he'd stepped with a curious glance, confused and slightly blank on what to think. _

_He shook off the confusion and turned around, slowly gaining an idea of his surroundings, ears adapting to the sounds from under his weight. It was displacing and snapped him to attention a few times more, he played with his weight, shifting and dancing just to make sure he was still safe._

_He looked around. Silver birth trees void of leaves, encased in a fine sheen of clear ice, water dripped from the edges and fell like raindrops, infrequent but many. He saw the clear pathway to his left, the direction he'd been facing when he woke up, and a single bench just behind him, noticed only when he backed into it._

_He turned, pushed down on the empty, new looking seating before deeming it safe and sitting down._

_He leaned forward, elbows on his knees and exhaled heavily, he watched as his breath failed to turn cold and visible in front of him. He then realised how warm he actually felt._

_Where am I?_

_Dante glanced down the pathway, leading down and out of Dante's sight, he was tempted to follow it._

_"You should go down there." A young voice, a girl, spoke from right next to him. Dante jumped, obviously startled and stared wide eyed at his new companion._

_"Patty?"_

_The girl shook her head._

_"No, but I took her likeness." She pointed down the path, past Dante. "Go. She's waiting."_

_"Who's waiting?" asked Dante._

_"Sophia." The girl spoke as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. "She brought you here so you could talk."_

_"And where is 'here'?"_

_The girl cocked her head to the side._

_"It's Limbo."_

_Dante blinked, pulled a face of disbelief and turned away._

_"It's her Limbo built for you." Said the girl. "You need to go. Sophia's waiting for you. You have to be quick or they will catch you."_

_'They?'_

_"Who?"_

_When Dante was unanswered he looked back to his side, the girl was gone, her orders clear._

_He had to go down that path._

_Dante stood up, brushing at his back and stretching before heading over to the drop, a steep incline greeted him as he neared the path, reaching down about 30 foot. Before it flattened out and continued on through the thickening of the wood._

_He stepped down, heavy in his feet expecting him to slip and fall, his boots fell upon hard ground and he shifted to see if he was likely to give way… Seemed safe enough. He stepped again, and again, taking himself further down the path. Birches thickened at the bottom, the water beginning to fall on Dante's jacket. _

_It was ridiculously peaceful, especially for 'Limbo'?_

_'This is not Limbo.' He thought._

_The pathway flattened out, winding left and into a darker thicker wooded area, as Dante made the turn he was immediately drawn to the open area at the end of the path, a meadow of light; tall silver grasses and rushes at full height._

_Dante stopped when he saw it. Something pulled at his fingers to reach for his guns. He slowly pulled them out from behind him, knocking off the safety with thumbs. He walked forward, fingers on the trigger. He neared the end of the path, eyes adjusting to the light as he stepped into the pasture._

_The cracking under his feet stopped, now he stepped upon solid earth, pushing away grasses as he walked. He scanned his surroundings._

_'Nothing..'_

_He kept walking through the pasture and back into the woods. This time there was no path, just open areas of rolling hills and rocks to his view, snow covered the ground thick and heavy under his weight. He kept Ebony and Ivory close, ready just in case, and began making his way uphill to higher ground. He steps became awkward as he moved having to compensate for the almost knee high snow that threatened to both trip him and fall into his boots. He still couldn't feel the cold though. He found himself stuck momentarily, his boot caught under some sort of hidden branch or rock, he cursed loudly and kicked his foot, losing the boot and falling forward. His hands, still holding his guns, reached out, catching himself on a birch tree – continentally placed – he turned around seeing where he'd stepped and looking at the giant hole his now missing boot was left in. He pushed himself up and reached down into the hole feeling around for his boot._

_The sounds of movement to his right pulled his attention up, a growl and the shifting of four feet in the snow. It was easy to spot, a hulking black form that walked on all fours, back rolled upwards in a form to make it seem bigger, teeth bared and a pair of brown eyes looking directly at him._

_Between thoughts reminding him he was still shoeless, the ache of holding himself up on one foot starting to nag and the pure "What the hell" at his newest guest, it didn't take long before he figured out what the creature was. The same monster who'd attacked Sarah._

_The creature seemed to recognise him, and as soon as Dante realised what it was, the creature bounded towards him, movements slowed by the snow. Dante pulled his outstretched hand back, puting his shoeless foot on the ground to stand and steady himself, he raised both arms and fired directly at the creature, no bullets missing its target. As the first clip emptied, the creature felt the pain, doubling back and howling aloud, it turned and ran off._

_The guns whistled in use, another clip fitted back into them, Dante eyed on the retreating from watching it disappear between behind a rocky outcrop about a couple of hundred metres away from him._

_He was amused, only slightly, the creature back outside the shop was more violent than that, had Dante unloaded his girls onto it then the creature would've kept coming._

_'Why didn't it?'_

_Dante deemed it a question to be quickly ignored shaking his head and reaching down to pull out his boot, successful and pleased the creature wasn't going to come back, he put the boot back on, doing up the laces against the tree and once more carried on up the hill. _

_As he neared the top he noticed how quiet it was, unlike when he first awake when he distinctly heard the sound of something, or someone screaming. He wondered why it was so quiet, and better yet where the hell was he?_

_Something drew him right, feeling the ground level beneath him and eyes spotting a building just a little ways from him, surrounded by a chain link fence._

_Dante walked up to it, the look of the place reminding him of one of the prisons he'd bailed himself out of once; he grabbed onto the fence, palms against the metal wiring. He hauled himself up, climbing up the fence and jumping down on the other side. He turned to the building, a grey metal box with double doors essentially, and walked up to it, as he neared the doors creaked and swung open. Inside, Dante could see a single corridor leading down what he assumed were stairs, railings built on either side a foot away from the door. Dante stepped through, putting Ebony away. _

_The doors closed behind him, the catch sliding shut with a click and a series of bolt closing behind him, the corridor became dark, the ground at Dante's feet sounded like hollow metal, as if he was walking along the balcony back at the shop. _

_As he walked down a light flickered on at the bottom, the sound of his footsteps on grated metal resounded through the corridor down and stopped when Dante reached the bottom. In front of him was a door, single handle, hinges leading inwards, the words "MY BODY IS A CAGE." written once just above the handle. Dante pulls down on the handle, the door sliding open with a brush of firm fingers. _

_"Ah, you're here."_

_Dante steps through, eyes on a woman standing in the centre of the room. _

_"It's you." He said. 'The lawyer from the Holstead mansion.' _

_The door closed behind him, Dante stepped up to woman stopping a few feet from here. _

_He noticed that the room was like when he was being detained as part of the "Young Offenders Rehabilitation Programme". The white brick walls the radiator and screen on the far side, behind the woman, the rows of florescent lights on the ceiling flashing._

_"You must be Sophia then." Said Dante._

_She nodded, a clipboard held to her chest with one hand._

_"That is me, my human name anyway."_

_"What are you?" asked Dante, resettling his grip on Ivory. If this woman, Sophia, moved Dante would shoot her dead._

_"I am an angel, a pure angel."_

_"And this place?" Dante gestured outward, not just meaning the room or the building, but the entirety of the world he was in. _

_"This is my Limbo, I have formed it to tell you about the Grigori." _

_"Grigori? What the hell is that?"_

_"A soul that isn't linked to Heaven or Hell - like we are." Sophia answered._

_"'Like we are'?"_

_"Yes," Sophia lowered her clipboard, flipping up a page. "You have no birth certificate, passport or a driver's licence. Your criminal record is astonishing though: numerous accounts of arson, sexual deviancy, and public vandalism… Says here you were also tried for murder on the first degree a few times." _

_Sophia looked up from above her glasses, Dante raised his hands in a "so what?" gesture._

_"Well, I'm just surprised. You've been very clean recently." She said._

_"Maybe I've seen the error of my ways?" said Dante._

_"Clearly..." Sophia lowered the clipboard. "I have brought you here for a reason, one so we can talk away from Zane-"_

_"How come?"_

_She smiled. "Because he'd try to kill me if he saw me of course- and two, so I can get you to agree with me." _

_"Agree with you on what?" asked Dante._

_"That Zane should be killed."_

_The fuck?_

_Dante kept a straight face, bring a hand cautiously round to take hold of Ebony behind him. _

_"Let me tell you a story Dante." She looked up to the corner of the room, up by the ceiling where, as Dante remembered was a camera – if this place was actually a replica of that Detention Facility. "31 years ago an angel of heaven came to this world, his name was Zerachiel, he lived on this world for years, passing to and from heaven when he was called by his brothers and fought brilliantly in the angel demon war at the time. However, on his time on Earth he was seeing a female human, a Brazilian woman named Ana. Over the years of Zerachiel being on Earth he came to be fond of this woman, and from this conceived a child. What possessed him to do this has yet to be found however, this child was indeed born, 7 months and 2 weeks later, killing Ana in the process._

_Zerachiel was upset, in fact he still is, but he brought up the child – ignoring the calls of his brothers and sisters to battle, he ignored his own daughter – __**me**__. After five of your years we came for him, took him away and had to child rid of, but, it seems someone in our ranks at the time was too full of compassion, kept the child alive meaning it could grow -" _

_'Zane.'_

_"-and now this child, the Grigori, is alive still, took you from Limbo City and set you here, in this dirty little town."_

_"You're talking to me but I'm not getting a point here lady." Said Dante, folding his arms._

_"His name, Zane I believe, is a fallen angel, one of the Grigori and to us a disgrace. 'The son of an angel and the daughter of a human, with the strengths of neither and the weaknesses of both.' They are a waste of Heavens power and ultimately cannot fight in our war unless they turn into a demon, and so, we have decided that they all shall be eradicated from the Earth"_

_"A demon? What makes you say he'll turn into a demon?"_

_Sophia's face softened, eyes dropped. She turned looking to the screen at the back._

_"It's a process that has begun in every Grigori I have met, and this one is no different."_

_The screen was black, just like is had been when Dante was locked up in the facility. But on further inspection he saw a dark shape behind it, he squinted his eyes and pushed past Sophia. _

_He heard a click behind him and the light from inside the room turned on, Zane stood there leaning against the glass on the other side, an arm just above his head supporting him, and he smiled when Dante blinked upon seeing him, eyes growing large in excitement._

_ "Zane?" Dante muttered._

_The angel, cocked his head, blinking once._

_"It's me-" _

_"I know. I know, as if I'd forget a face like yours." Zane shifted his weight behind the glass, shoulders fell back but the arm remained up. He watched Dante under lowered eyes. "You know Sophia, I don't like watching you talk about me like that. Hurts my feelings when you say you want to kill me."_

_He snapped his neck to the side._

_"In fact, come over here and I'll show you how much I hate it, how much of a waste I am.."_

_Sophia stepped up beside Dante, fingers pulling her glasses down, head held up high. It was easy to see she thought of herself higher than both the males._

_"I'm afraid that if I do, you'll try and kill me." She spoke nonchalantly_

_ "No, I won't." He brought his head forward, eyes only on Sophia. "Not straight away."_

_"I see."_

_Sophia turned to Dante._

_"This is the beginning stages, and won't be prevalent in the actual physical form for a long time so you have a few weeks at best to make a decision, but, in the end I know you will agree with me."_

_"What if I don't?"_

_"Then I'll have to do it myself, but you will be putting yourself in danger, you and your girl. This demon isn't a separate entity, he won't suddenly change from one to the next, it'll be progressive, steady. You could wake up one day and he'll have broken everything around him, massacred a school, broken into a prison to kill someone just because he felt like it. Impulsive, violent behaviour that would be seen as a mental disorder to the humans."_

_'They used to think that about me.'_

_"Dante, I only will ask of you this once, and then after I will take matters into my own hands should you fail."_

_Dante dropped his eyes from her face , back to Zane. He was still staring at Sophia, both arms up, eyes predatory, hands in fists – 'is that blood?' – blood seeping from his palms and running down wrists. _

_"How many of these have you killed?" asked Dante, motioning to Zane._

_"I never kept count, they are pests, pests that I choose to give a chance for life and a clean death only because they are human."_

_"How many are there then?"_

_"Currently, less than hundred. Before I took on this job, over 10,000 had existed."_

_"That's a lot to kill."_

_"It is a necessary commitment I have undertaken, as was yours with the destruction of Mundus-."_

_She walks away from the screen, back towards the door on the other side, Dante hears it open._

_"-You can leave now Nephilim."_

* * *

Dante opened his eyes, a fog over his sight. In confusion of where he was, a warm light hitting him on the face and something on his stomach, he rolled to the side ridding of the offending weight and an arm swung out catching a beer bottle, with a clink, on the table.

"Watch it."

A hand caught the bottle before it fell off the table, moving a few more out of the way and pushing the pizza box closer to him.

"Here, you've been asleep for a good 14 hours."

Dante blinked his eyes into focus; he pushed forward on the couch, trying to remember how he was still downstairs in the shop. "T-thanks" he said pulling the box closer to him.

He looked around, the shop was the same, morning light shining through the windows, the double doors open letting a breeze in.

"What's the day today?" he asked Zane, sat adjacent to him.

"2nd of July. Why?"

Dante shrugged, taking a bite out of the pizza, recently reheated. He looked over to the angel who was looking back.

_'Looks like normal.'_

"You alright Dante?"

"Yeah- yeah, I'm fine."

_'Was it just a dream?'_

"You sure?"

"I said I'm fine."

"Okay," Zane folded up his newspaper and threw it to his side. "Hey Lukas. You fixed it?"

"Of course I fucking haven't, I'm not a mechanic!" Came the annoyed and muffled reply.

Dante leaned forward to see past the sofa to the far end of the room. The jukebox had been pulled away from the wall, its back facing a blond male who looked to be working on it, not too happy to be doing so though.

"It just needs a little rewiring." Said Zane. "Nothing serious."

"Well then you fucking do it."

"Nah, 'm fixing your car for you remember?"

"I don't see you doing it."

"And I don't hear you fixing my music."

"Fuck you!"

Something heavy and metal fell to the floor, Dante couldn't see, Lukas swore under his breath swiping a hand away from the back of the juke box.

"Did you even turn off the mains?" asked Zane a smile on his face.

"No, I fucking didn't, cos you complained about not having hot water for your shower." Said Lukas.

"You could've turned it off after."

"Do you want me to fix this thing or not?"

Zane rolled his shoulders back, arms up on the back of the sofa.

"Anyway," Zane pointed a thumb in Lukas's direction. "Dante, this is Lukas, an old friend, he's also a contractor – of sorts, he's gonna start giving us jobs."

"Us?" questioned Dante, offering the pizza to the angel.

"No thanks. Yeah, **us**, figured with the Rougarou that I could start getting back into it. That and I'm getting bored again."

"Or you just can't keep your hands off shooting something in the head." Commented Lukas. He stood up brushing his hands clean of dirt on his slacks.

"I do like shooting things."

Lukas pushed the jukebox back into its original position before joining them, jumping over the couch and sitting next to the half angel.

"So, we're going to be working together?" asked Dante.

"Kinda, Lukas always gave me the tricky missions, meaning that I had to be at too many places at once. Therefore, anything given to you by him I'll come along to lend a hand. If Morrison offers you one, then I'll have absolutely nothing to do with it."

Date nodded, "Fair enough."

"Don't worry, I won't take the spot light away from you, you get all the money and to any clients it'll look like I'm working for you." Said Zane.

Dante gave him a questioning look, was Zane giving him control over him?

Did that mean he could boss him around, get him back for those morning wake up calls?

"What's the job?" Dante asked.

"Well," Lukas sat forward, pulling out the newspaper from under him and throwing it at Zane's face. "There are two really, one of them I've already got guys working on but I'm sceptical if they can handle it right. The other is pretty simple, heard it from a couple of tits down by the Hunting Range."

Dante motioned him to elaborate.

"The easy one is just outside of the town, bout a couple of miles north towards Alderidge-" he looked to Zane,"-that place where you fell off the bridge and got trapped under that demon-" Zane nodded in acknowledgement a sour look on his face. "there's this International museum that's showing this display" he pulls out a leaflet from the table "_200 years of history from the Native American Indians_" he hands it to Dante. "Basically it's a disaster waiting to happen."

"How so?" Dante took the leaflet that shiny, odd feeling paper fell open, showing the map of the museum and where the exhibition was going to be displayed.

"Native Americans are tribe people, and tribe people means…?"

Dante looked to Zane expecting an answer.

"Fucking hell… It means shit will happen; spirits rising from the dead, witch curses taking effect, demons gates opening etcetera, etcetera." Answered Lukas.

"Oh."

"I suspect that something will crop up, if not you get £3000 for just standing around at a party for 5 hours."

"Party?" Zane raised and eyebrow, "You never mentioned this."

"Coz I know you fucking hate 'em. But too late, the pair of you, and the girl, are going."

"Kat too?" asked Dante.

"You'll be needed a plus one to this thing if you wanna get in without raising suspicion." Said Lukas, as if it was the final decision.

"The party's tomorrow night. If you take the job someone's gotta go as a security guard and the other two will be guests. You get in, lay low and sit the night through all the way to the end, If nothing happens, you can leave and the jobs done."

"And if something does happen?" asked Dante, putting the leaflet back on the table.

"You fucking kill it that's what. There's some rules to this job though, you break ANYTHING and I'll kill you myself, also you won't get paid. Casualties are to be to a minimum and you're to report back to me by the end of the night."

"Will a call do?" asked Zane.

"That's fine."

"And the other job?" continued Zane.

"The one my mercs are on right now." Lukas bit on his lower lip, "It's confusing that one, that's over in some national park cross the border, seems some geologists or something uncovered this catacombs running right under the park and into to some sort of old… city thing."

"City?"

Lukas sighed, hand over his mouth as he thought.

"It's fucking weird." He muttered.

"How weird?" Zane turned to him, concerned.

"Remember those old ruins that that kid tried to use to bring his mom back? Connie or something."

"Yeah. He died about a week after that of sepsis." Said Zane.

"Well, the guys that found this died yesterday. Same thing, and this city, it's just like those ruins from before, inscriptions and everything."

"Lemme see."

Dante watched as Lukas pulled out his phone from his pocket passing it to Zane immediately, "same password" he said, watching as Zane made his way through his phone.

"Oh." Said the angel after a few moments.

"Yeah, fucking oh. But I don't want you going in until my team either need you, or are dead." Lukas took his phone back.

"Well, let's do both then," said Dante. "If the party's tomorrow then it'll occupy us while your team deals with what's going on down there. And if anything happens between now and then we can just pull out and head over."

"Very well." Lukas stood. "It's done then. I'll get you your invitations, all you gotta do is find is a suit." He looked at Dante as he said the last line, "make sure your girl has a dress too."

"Me?" Dante pointed at himself. "A suit?"

"Well I doubt you want me going with her." Said Zane. "And anyway, it'll do you some good, socialising with the upper class." He laughed, joining Lukas as the two made their way outside the front, where Dante suspected Lukas's car was, not that he was actually in the mood to care.

Him. In a **suit**.

Dante hung his head, he wasn't going to enjoy this.

* * *

Lukas will be a** side character** don't fret, he'll drop in and out every now and then unless people say he's likeable then he _may_ get more appearances.

Killed my previous chapter 6, hated it and I'm sure you did too, drop by a comment on this new version if you can, comments pump out chapters faster and make them better believe it or not. I do enjoy reading them!


	7. Chapter 7

_**- CHAPTER 7 -**_

They took Lukas's car round the back of the shop, where Zane's private little workshop was situated. Built from an old warehouse that had been left when he'd first moved in Zane had unofficially claimed it as his property and settled himself a work space there. Mostly to house his car.

They pushed Lukas's red Shelby Mustang into the garage, just about half way into the entrance to give Zane enough light. Lukas unlocked the car popping open the front as she was raised off the ground.

"Hey."

"hmm?" Zane opened the car door, climbing up behind the driver's seat, a foot hanging out.

"That was him then?"

"huh?" Zane pulled away from his fumbling under the steering wheel. "Dante? Oh yeah that was him." He leans back, looking up at Lukas. "Why you ask?"

"He seems, like a kid still. For someone who supposedly taken down Mundus-"

"He did." Said Zane.

"Yeah, well, that's what's difficult to get my head around. He killed Mundus. He's 3 centuries younger than me and he managed to take Mundus out."

"He _is_ a Nephilim."

"That doesn't mean anything." Said Lukas

"You know full well it does Lukas, he's born angel and demon, strengths of both weakness of neither he can't be killed unless you _really_ want him dead" He pops open the wiring panel under the wheel. "Do you want him dead?" he shoots Lukas a stern look.

"No. Even if I did I couldn't fight you."

"Good." Zane returned to the panel fingers reaching out for the wires, "What wrong with her again?"

"Just making this right weird noise when I start her, thought it was wiring." Answered Lukas, walking to Zane, he ducked his head looking in.

"Doesn't feel like it." Zane withdrew his hands, "everything's fine. I'll check under."

He motioned for Lukas to step back, getting out of the car and heading over to his workstation.

"So why the sudden want to do jobs again?" asked Lukas.

"Ehh, you could say I'm getting bored."

"You don't get bored Crusade, you always have something to do whether it's going up to Love Planet or fucking around with the tits in the Hunting Range."

"Do you have to call them tits?"

"They're humans, they are tits."

Zane chuckled, returning to the car with a skateboard and tool kit.

"Answer my question," Lukas folded his arms glaring at the half angel as he was blatantly ignored.

"Maybe I am getting bored." Said Zane, dropping to the ground with his back on the board.

"Quit the crap, tell me."

Zane looked up at him, considering an answer.

"Maybe I just want to fight again." The angel swiftly pulled himself under the car, ignored the protest from Lukas.

"That was a shitty answer!"

"I can only hear your mumbling."

"Fucks sake!" Lukas waved his hands in the air exasperated and stepped away, looking out of the garage/warehouse. He heard Zane slide out, grab something from the tool box and slide back under.

"You know" said Zane. "We never talked about Germany."

"There was nothing to talk about."

"I think we should talk about it."

"So I killed demon in a public place, big deal."

"You killed a demon horde on top of a national monument and scared the life out of half the population." Zane pulled out from under the car, wiping blood from his face with a cloth. "You've still got a demon under here."

"That was last week's problem." Lukas shrugged . "And if I hadn't," he turned back to the angel, index finger out "that city wouldn't be standing."

"Doesn't mean you can go stabbing things with whatever the hell you decide to rip out of the ground like you're some gang member with pent up anger issues."

"Those demons stank I'll have you know, _and_, they were ruining my day. The little shits deserved to be killed."

Zane smiled. "I'll admit it was funny, but I didn't enjoy that night in prison."

"Why? Did you drop the soap?" Lukas mocked, laughing as Zane pulled a face.

"Oh to hell with you!" Zane ducked under the car once more, mumbling about the integrity of prisons and their gay sex jokes.

Lukas let the man work for a while, poking round on the angels desks and such, picking up random items that caught his eye.

He walked past a pile of books, mostly old demonology tomes that Zane had yet to rebind together, he stopped when he saw a photo amongst the mess, obviously fallen down from the wall.

It was a picture from about the time he helped the angel move into Capulet, it a light worn image of their gang of friends at the time, mostly humans and the two of them, all ganged together standing, or kneeling, with weapons in hand and smiles on their faces. Behind they could see the Hunting Range, the old bar that lived to its name, standing a lot taller than Lukas remember it used to be. He scans his eyes over the faces naming each person.

_Val's sporting a nice bruise there, bloody idiot._

He feels himself smile, only to quickly hide it when he hears Zane call out from under the car. Lukas put the photo down how it had fallen and turns back to his car.

"Fixed her yet?" Lukas slammed a hand against the side of his car, laughing when he heard the angel jump under the car, cursing as he dropped something and hit his head on the metal.

"Don't do that!"

"What?" Lukas mocked innocence drumming his fingers against the side.

"You're going to give me a heart attack or something." Zane pulled out from the car, blood covered his face. "You really need to stop running demons over."

Lukas shrugged, "saves me from killin' them myself."

"Yeah well you're lucky, you've got one hell of a claw stuck under here," he reaches up pulling out a white curved bone handing it to him. Along its broken chipped exterior Lukas felt the cold of ice and water on it.

"You used you powers to pull it out?" he asked.

"I had to close the gap with something, it'll stay there long enough for you to replace it yourself."

"Not gonna do it for me?"

"Not got the parts." Zane leaned back against the car, taking to bone back from Lukas as he too sat down.

"You okay using your powers?"

"I'm not weak!" Zane eyes light up in amusement, "I just can't use them too much."

"Like when you crossed over to Limbo to save the two of them."

"Well that was mostly due to that stupid ghost, shrouded the whole area so I couldn't sense anything- it wasn't until Dante triggered that I realised where they were and was able to get in and save Kat."

"What about using Icarus?"

"I can do that! If I couldn't use him I'd be mortified."

"I've never seen you use him, just mainly for 'Show and Tell' when Val caught wind of what you were." said Lukas.

"You haven't?" Zane pulled a face, "Well I could show you now.."

"You could."

"I could."

"You wanna?"

"I wanna."

"Go on then!"

Zane chuckled, stood up and walked a few paces away from the car towards the back of the garage, but still in the light that Lukas could see. He stretched out his fingers, rotated the wrists, muttered a few words and with a trained movement turned. Arms together raised up with one hand pulling back all the way to the side of his face, legs apart, shoulders up but relaxed, and as he moved a light blue haze formed around his outstretched arm, running down just part way and bundling his arm, as the other hand was pulled back the haze spilt running either side of the hand into a perfect curve.

Just as Lukas remembered it, it was a recurve bow, simple in design and black in colour with blue grey veins running through it, the limbs shined silver as the arrow formed in Zane's hand, ready to go.

Lukas whistled.

"Very nice. Not my sort of thing but I like." He complimented.

"Thanks," Zane looked a little embarrassed lowering the bow, the arrow fading, stance relaxing. "I prefer fighting from afar; only get in real close if I have to."

"You got something for that I assume?"

Zane nodded. "Of course." His hand clenched and the bow shattered falling like snow and fading just a foot off the ground, in its place – a military grade shotgun.

"Not a sword guy then?" Lukas concluded.

"If I'm going to get in close I want to get in _rea_l close, scare them before I blow their entire chest cavity open with a shell, or their heads –whichever is closer."

"I couldn't imagine you being one scary little fucker shoving those rounds into people."

"Probably because I won't be scary, I'll be humble and kind saying, "terribly sorry love but you do have to die" and then I'll shoot them."

"Imagine doing that in Germany, breaking shots into those fuckers. Resident Evil style you know. Just raping the shit out of a couple zombies"

Zane rolled his eyes. "I don't 'rape', just maim and murder - and they're demons not zombies."

"Imagine if there were Zombies though. Awwww hell that'll be fun!" Lukas cackled in amusement.

"I'm sure it would be for you, but no one else."

"Oh you spoil sport." Lukas calmed down suddenly. He watched as Zane let his weapon disappear, face serious all of a sudden.

"What's wrong?" Zane asked.

"How's the... you know, problem going?"

"It's fine." Said Zane, sitting back down next to Lukas.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, everything's fine, hopefully Dante and Kat won't be seeing any of it."

"Want me to come over in the dead of night to make sure you don't demon out on everyone? Get some chains and tied you up to the bed or something?"

"Kinky." Zane joked.

Lukas pushed him with his shoulder, "You know what I mean."

"It'll be fine Lukas. And If anything happens Dante can protect the two of them."

"It's you I'm worried about." Said Lukas.

"It's not at that stage yet, just thoughts so far." Said Zane.

"Like what?"

"Like I wanted to see if that girl, Sarah, would actually become a Rougarou. I wanted to see the transformation for myself."

"That seems more like curiosity to me."

"Then I wanted to shoot her in the heart, watch her die slowly before finishing her off in the head" The angel brought his knees u to his chest, elbows on them. "Small things like- I wanted to kill this kid who wouldn't shut up in the store, I wanted to kill Dezone once."

"Dezone? She worships the ground you walk on… You sure it's 'okay'?"

"It's only just small thoughts, like two seconds in my head then they're gone, I don't act on them nor do I feel the need to but they're there."

"Ahh. Man, you fucking suck ass sometimes you know? Now I'm gonna have to worry what I do from now on in case you Hulk out on me."

Zane pushed against his shoulder in humour. "I won't be doing anything to do with Hulking out. Don't see green as a flattering skin tone thanks."

"Still, the cranky hormonal mood swings kinda similar."

"Similar to every other woman in the world."

"Oh yeah, I forgot women get cranky on their time of the month, that must suck."

"I've heard it's been related to be being eaten by a shark." Zane rested his temple on folded arms, facing Lukas.

"Must be if they pull up such a fuss about it."

"They pull up enough fuss to demonstrate how much pain their in, you would too if you feel like you're being eaten."

"By a shark." Lukas finished.

Silence enveloped the two, Zane leaned against Lukas.

"hey."

"hmm?"

"You'll be fine," Lukas looked down on the angel. "I'm always here."

"Thanks."

"And if anything goes wrong I'll turn into Leon Kennedy for you and shoot you in the head."

"Blond hair and gorgeous eyes?" Zane was joking, he knew that Lukas would never want hair like Leon Kennedy's.

"Everything."

* * *

Dante elbowed the cushion that had somehow between him getting off the couch to go and answer the phone and lying back down had somehow managed to mess up its position that would've placed it comfortably under Dante's lower back.

Now the damn zipper was just making things uncomfortable and he swore there was something poking into him.

Dante growled out in annoyance, grabbing hold of the offending plush and throwing it across the room to the other side, he heard it collide with the wall slumping down to the ground.

_Fucking thing._

He pulled the one under his head further down, leaving his hand stuck underneath it, grey-blue eyes looked up at the ceiling, the fan just cutting into his view. He sighed loudly, hand reaching out to the table to find his drink, he caught hold of the cool metal and brought it towards him. Resting it on his stomach, not wanting to take another drink just yet he simply stared up.

He was doing a lot of staring at this ceiling recently, wasn't he?

But then again, beats having to look for a suit

_A suit? What the hell? Where I do even begin? Maybe if I just hang around long enough, I won't have to go get one and Zane can do it. Wonder what dress Kat bought though._

It was the following day, after Lukas had given them the job, the man had left later that day with a fixed car and Zane had told Kat about the whole thing. She seemed excited in Dante's eyes about the whole thing, although Dante would've expected her to be a little nervous like he was.

_A suit, a fucking suit._

Zane had taken her into the centre of town around midday and the two should've been back about an hour ago – not that Dante had been counting.

The phones chime rung through the shop and Dante swung out of the sofa, blood rushed to his head and he stopped momentarily, placing done his drink on the table.

He walked over to the desk, sitting down on the chair, feet up, legs crossed at the end, he folded over to the phone, picking it up.

"Hello."

"_Hej Zane, si tam? Musím sa pozrieť, aby ste sa sem čo najskôr to pôjde. Niečo sa tu deje, a ja neviem čo, ale to má niečo spoločné s démonmi._"

Dante pulled the headset away from his ear, did he just hear that right?

"Hey, look I don't-"

But it seems the guy had kept talking while Dante had questioned if he was hearing correctly.

"-a len zabíjať ľudí, vraždiť je na uliciach, ale oni nie sú ako každý z démonov, ktoré som videl predtým. prosím, môžete nám pomôcť."

The tone dial on the phone told Dante that the man, he assumed it was a man, had hung up. Dante stared at the headset for a few moments before putting it back on the stand.

_What the hell was that? _

He wasn't language guru but he heard Zane's name, Dante made a mental note to tell the man when he returned.

But another 30 minutes later and all was forgotten. As Kat walked in with a box in hand, she smiled upon seeing Dante eyes alight and excited, she ran over to him and stopped in front of the desk. The box was surprisingly flat, Dante figured that he could put Revenant and his girls in and no one would notice. Kat pulled the lid off and colour hit Dante's eyes, Kat, carefully pulled out a dress holding it out for the Nephilim to see.

"What do you think?" she asked, more than excitement on her face now.

Dante didn't know what to say, sure the dress was nice, strapless, black and silver with some sort of glitter design running down the side – Dante could imagine Kat looking really… good, in it – but.

"It's nice." He said.

From behind Kat he could see Zane pull a face, one that said "not the right thing to say". When Dante looked back at Kat however she still had that smile on.

"I mean, I can't really say anything till I see you wear it" Dante quickly said, and he swore he saw her brighten up just a little more.

"Well you're going to have to wait till later." She put the dress back and closed the box, tucking it under her arm and dashing upstairs.

"Smooth" said Zane once her door had closed.

"Shut up."

"No really, you fixed it so well. You know you could've said it was gorgeous or something. I did."

"Yeah, well you can deal with women and their stuff."

"You just deal with the 'other stuff' on a woman." Zane gave him a wink to which Dante scowled. "Don't worry, you'll be thanking me later, I found that you know." He meant the dress of course. A smile that put Dante on the slight edge crept onto his face. "Oh and I managed to find this too." He dropped a bag on the desk by Dante's feet. "I took the measurements from your clothes as they came through the wash, so hopefully this will fit."

Dante was dreading it, standing up to peer into the bag he saw the exact same box Kat had before, just grey in colour instead of a light peach, he reached in a pulled it out.

Here it was.

Zane looked at him expectantly.

"It's not gonna kill you." He said.

"Can't I go as a guard?" said Dante.

"I'm wearing one too." Zane lifted up another bag. "Come on, dress up. We're going in the next hour."

Dante watched him walk away, still holding the box.

_Suits._

* * *

"In all my life have I never seen someone put up so much resistance to a piece of clothing."

"I. hate. Ties." Said Dante, biting down every word, head held up as Zane worked on the tie.

"And I hate that I can't roll my sleeves up and look like Tom Hiddleston, now stand still."

_Tom who?_

"I said-" Zane grabbed hold of Dante's shoulder shaking him a bit then holding him still "stand still."

Dante sighed.

"Oh don't make such a face." Said Zane he did the final knot and tightened up the garment so it just sat at collar bone height, "here." A quick movement and the top button was undone, the tie then tightened enough to hide it, but kept that choking feeling away.

Not that Dante was particularly enjoying the stuffy shirt, the black jacket and the tie anyway. The fucking red tie.

"You have to wear it for the rest of the night, after that you can burn it; use it as a gag I don't care." Zane pulled away running hands across Dante's shoulders and pulled down at the edges to help fix the Nephilim up. "I'll admit. You may find yourself being stared at tonight."

"How so?" Dante reached up to pull down the tie to which he had his hand slapped away.

"Well If I was a girl I'd really be wondering if you were single, thankfully Kat is going to be with you so you're safe – where is that girl? Katherine!" he headed over to the staircase stepping up with one foot onto the front step. "Kat we're about to go."

Kat's door opened and she stepped out, unsteady on low black heels as she stepped down the stairs, Zane held out his had to help her down to the ground. He quickly glanced over at Dante, eyes going "I told you so". And damn was he right.

Kat was small, Dante knew it but the dress did everything right for her, it farmed her body showing her at her best and in all the right places.

A part of Dante thought that she'd be the one who was going to get stared at.

Zane picked up a sports bag from the sofa, that's he'd put Ebony & Ivory in earlier on, and made his way to the door,. His movements broke the eye contact Dante and Kat had, she blushed and turned away while Dante shook his head and followed the angel.

Heeled steps followed Dante out of the shop. Spotting the Zane's car parked just on the curb.

"So where is this place?" asked Kat stepping up beside the Nephilim.

"Somewhere" Dante answered. He looked down at her seeing how close she was.

_Better start playing the part I guess._

He raised his hand closest to her and she took it in her own, allowing him to guide her down the stairs into the open back seat of the car. Making sure she was all in he closed the door, at the same time Zane closed the boot, what Dante would call a stupid look on his face.

"What?" he snapped.

"You two look good together."

Dante rolled his eyes, "We're just friends." He began walking round to the other side of the car, passing the angel.

"Friends with benefits?"

"No." Dante gave him a stare, one to drop it, the angel raised both hands in resignation and proceeded to the driver's seat.

Dante put himself in the back along with Kat. Watching as Zane got in closed the door and started the engine.

"You two ready?"

Kat nodded, Zane's eyes in the rear view mirror able to see, he smiled, adjusted his position on the seat and put the car into drive.

Kat shifted towards the window, an arm on the side as she watched Capulet turn to its night-time life. As people of all ages dressed up to go and hit the clubs and bars that occupied the towns back streets, love Planet being on that list of course.

Dante settled himself in, Zane telling them that they'll be there in under half an hour, eyes only on Kat.

She did look good in that dress.

* * *

Wanted to get this, "boring" bit out and down so I could then happily work on what I acutally want to do - which is the mission ofc.

I headcanon that Dante hates suit, mainly because of the tie, so I had to put it in. Also, Kat would look DAMN FINE in a dress, not a frilly out at the hips [im not good with dresses myself I just admire them on other people] but tight and form fitting. So yeah did that too.

Hope you enjoy this filler chapter to some degree, and I HOPE you don't mind that the first 2000 words is kinda Zane/Lukas filled, I did try with the two of them to make them likeable I really did, hopefully my work paid off (?)

Again, I'm gonna ask for reviews, mainly because I need to see what you guys think; of the story, the characterisation even the OC's and their usage, because if I start doing something wrong now all that's going to happen is it'll get worse for you readers further down the line and I hate it if that happened. Anyway, thanks for reading.


	8. Chapter 8: Pukjinskwes

_**- CHAPTER 8: PUKJINSKWES -**_

**19:04**

Dante had never been to a museum, culture of people that had died long before he was born wasn't of any interest to him. But it seems to the rest of the world it was.

They pulled up in front of the building, tall Victorian gothic design, with straight towers and archways. It loomed over them as Zane opened Kat's door to let them out – in the illusion that he was the driver of a prestigious young man, titled to inherit a fine fortune, and his girlfriend for the night – as if judging and daring them to enter.

The building had just opened for the night and so people were still entering, only to be distracted by those they recognised also attending the party. Many people hung around outside, chatting so animatedly, and loudly, that it allowed for Dante and Kat to step onto the red carpet without a single head turning towards them.

Dante held out his arm for Kat to gently hold onto at his elbow, something the two had only just been told to do by the angel, and stepped away from the car. Zane closed the door and stepped up behind Dante, the Nephilim kept his head up and looked forward as the angel's mouth came close to his ear.

"Make social and keep to the persona." The angel warned, "Use the head set if you hear anything. Here." Dante felt hands underneath his jacket, at the back, fingers looped into the back of his slacks and shoved something cool and hard down them. "Ebony. Just in case." Pulling the back of the jacket down the angel pulled away and Dante heard him return to the car, where he will drive off behind the building to its public car park and then find his own way in as a security guard.

Kat nudged at his side, inclining her head to have him lead them in, Dante shifted and moved forward, watching as the people around him milled about and conversed with others. A busty woman laughed to their right, chest rising forward but stepping back into the two, knocking them off balance, when Dante caught Kat by the waist the woman stopped and twisted, eyes wondering until she saw them. A black dress covered pale skin, one that dropped a little too low at the bust, Dante held back a stare snapping his eyes to the man just behind the woman, who had stopped talking and was staring at them above brown rimmed glasses.

"Oh my dear, terribly sorry, I hope I didn't startle you." She said.

"It's no- No." Dante's voiced changed, '_calm and confident'_ as he was told '_remember you're a pig-headed kid with a filthy rich family and entitled to get it all in due course' _He looked at the woman, straight into her eyes_. _"It is quite alright." He raised his arm and walked on.

Kat pushed up against him as they passed more strangers, all dressed up in black, white or red for the occasion. Clean shaven men holding onto the waists or gently touching the hands of their women, who themselves held clutch bags, played with corsage's or talked so fast about things that were so meaningless to Dante that he just shook his head and carried on.

They reached the top step where a man in blue, gestured out for their invitations, Dante passed them to him and the man; round faced, dark eyes from stress and work, nodded in acceptance before handing them back and outstretching his hand.

They entered the main hall, a huge room of marbled floor and wooden stalls, immediately they saw a bronze statue, obviously the highlight of the museum, of an angel slaying a demon. Both looked human but the large curved wings on one wielding the sword and the horns on the other cowering on the "floor" told the difference. Kat inspected the statue reading its plaque at the bottom while Dante looked over to the left, right and back of the main room. Blue suited security guards were posted at all the doors, black ties and a single handgun at their hips hidden just under the jackets. Their hard, stoic stance was supposedly to prevent access into the rooms - it seems the guests were to take the double stairs either side of the room up to the second floor. The centre of the room was the information desk a rounded wooden desk that allowed entry at the back, in its centre stood a huge pillar with a golden globe at the top, and no, not the award.

Dante, once he had quietly gained Kat's attention and hand, lead them up the stairs, passing the information desk and slowing his pace as they made their way up the stairs. Once on the balcony, they stepped over to closed double doors. A young female looked up at them, giving a smile before she turned to the wooden entrance, she pushed both handles and the doors swung open.

Inside the room was very much like the one downstairs, but it was most definitely taller, reaching up so high that Dante could hardly see the paintings on the ceiling telling of Angel and Demon battles that raged on the Earth thousands of years ago. Arches replicated from the outside walls with rearing horses hovering over them, tapestries from the collection being shown tonight told of ancient legends and monsters that Dante, before getting out of Limbo City, wouldn't have thought existed.

"The Pukjinskwes" said Kat looking up to the one immediately on their right, the name sounded forced on her tongue. "She's some sort of ancient witch that tried controlling one of the tribes, supposedly there's a famous story about her where she turns into a giant bug."

Dante looked up, woven colour describing in images, that more or less looked like cave paintings, of a man killing someone and then that person transforming into a large monster.

"Glad the old coot doesn't exist then." He said although sceptical of his own words.

They walked further in hearing the doors close behind them.

The room itself was, more or less crowded but still beginning to fill up, the moment Kat and Dante stepped over to "inspect" one of the displays – a collection of pottery from the Mississippian culture – the double door opened again and the group from earlier, with the woman who'd hit Dante, waltzed in their voices carrying the length of the room.

Dante rolled his eyes as he heard the woman's voice; Kat saw his annoyance and smiled.

"Only 5 hours." She said, before walking off.

**20:32pm**

It was quick for Dante to settle into a routine, looking small was easier that he thought with the majority of the guests being male, and those who were women were obviously married, he hadn't had anyone to approach him. Unlike Kat. As Dante stood smouldering by the archway watching as Kat was being complimented and asked too many questions for her to keep up with a few metres away. Dante snatched another drink of rose from a passing waiter, gripping it hard as he stared into the back of a "_dark haired wanna be posterboy with a fucking rose on his jacket._" He watched as something he said made Kat giggle, oh, Dante was going to kill this pretty boy.

"Enjoying yourself?"

Dante snapped his attention away from the far off group to Sophia, surprised to see her.

"I can see you're getting a little jealous there." She averted her eyes to Kat, red dress sparkling. "You do have every right to put yourself right in the middle of that."

"No I don't."

"Oh?" the angel looked back at him. When Dante went back to staring at the group the angel joined him against the arch way, holding her own glass up at its stem.

"Have you agreed to my terms?"

"What terms?" Dante was only paying half attention.

"That you would kill the Fallen Angel."

"No." he cocked his head to the side when one of the men shifted round, blocking Dante from seeing Kat.

"I see. Well you still have time."

"Good."

He felt Sophia's gaze on the side of his face, intense behind those glasses.

"Look lady, I really don't want to be dealing with-" he turned to face her, but she was gone.

Dante was a little confounded, she was there right there. Then, another laugh ruptured around the hall, that damned woman from before was getting herself giddy over a couple of glasses. Dante rolled his eyes as she fell backwards an almost hit one of the display cabinets, showing clothes from one of the tribes.

_'Light weight.'_

He looked back to the group that surrounded Kat, seeing that some of them had left, except that posterboy who was getting a little too close for him to enjoy.

"Dante." Zane's voice sounded form the earphone he'd given Dante before they got out of the car.

"What?"

"Calm down. Seen anything yet?"

"No, just people and boring ass displays." Dante gave a smile to two men walking by.

"Same here. Look we have 3 and a half hours to kill now, just hold out till then okay?"

"Got it."

There was a click and Dante went back to his staring.

* * *

**22:11pm**

Zane smiled as a young couple passed him walking over to the stairs to make their way up into the main area of the night's party. He could hear the quartet that he had to help bring in earlier playing Beethoven's "String Quartet #7 in F major" and was considerably glad that he wasn't positioned upstairs.

Instead, he'd been stuck posted outside one of the doors in the main hall, this one would've led guests to the military section of the building. An arrangement of weaponry and instruments used in the wars of history - from the World Wars as soon as you'd have walked in, right to the ancient ones, with rooms dedicated to the Romans and Japanese.

Although bored and legs beginning to ache on the inside he sighed, glad that so far, nothing had happened.

"But, life does dictate that sod's law always come around to bite you." He said, mainly to himself.

"What was that?" said the guard that Zane had been stationed with. A quiet, walled man with a beer belly and bad odour – whom Zane had been quietly insulting through the entirety of the night.

"Nothing." The half angel replied in a cheery voice, pulling down his hat as he smirked and looked down.

"Huh," the man mumbled something about kids but the fell silent as the curator stepped through – obviously making his own rounds of the place to make sure no one had snuck in. He stopped at the man, turning to him.

"Everything alright here?" he asked.

"Yes sir. No one's tried anything; it's been a good night."

"Good." He turned to Zane. Stopping when he obviously didn't recognise him. "And who are you?"

"New kid." Said Zane.

"I didn't see you at the meeting beforehand"

"Sorry sir, had to take my little girl over to her friend's house before hand, last minute thing you know." Hopefully the curator would accept the lame lie and be on his way, which he did. After scrutinising the half angel for a few seconds and walking off. Zane leaned back against the wall watching as the curator stepped up to the second floor to join his guests. As he followed the man with his eyes, he noticed a woman looking down at him - as in straight at him.

Something in him snapped and he slowly broke into a cold sweat. He swallowed heavily under the green-eyed stare, noticing the woman's red dress sparkling in the light.

She watched him for a moment, as if she was studying some sort of science experiment she'd poured her heart into; amusement, interest and longing. Something in him screamed at him to run, that she wasn't this gorgeous young woman with perfect skin and blonde hair tied up in a clip that in any other circumstance he'd otherwise wouldn't mind spending the night with. It told him to get out, to run, to get away from her as quickly as he could.

He clenched his fists, lowered his head and closed his eyes, heart beating too fast for him to count, head so confused with these words running over and over in his head, to _run_, to _hide_, to _fight._

He gasped quietly in a sudden pain that started in his head, running down the side of his face repeatedly until it ached, and then just as when Zane was going to make up some lame excuse and leave his position the ache stopped, gone completely. He raised a hand to his face to touch the skin and looked back up. She was gone.

But the fear had settled in his stomach, he knew she was still around.

His phone vibrated in his pocket, and without the other guard seeing he pulled it out and opened it.

* * *

**22:49pm**

"Hey Dante."

"Yeah."

Kat had managed to get away from the posterboy from before and reunited with Dante in a second room that housed similar artefacts and the like from the collection.

"It's a bit quiet isn't it?" She said, shifting on her seat, fingers reaching down to pull the dress over her knees, not that it could actually go any further.

"Well means that we won't have to face anything" said Dante, leaning back.

The two had sat themselves at the back of the room, in the corner, directly in front of them along the wall was a group of people just stood in one of the alcoves that lead onto the balcony, the doors however, where locked.

"Yeah, I guess so."

Dante watched the people around them, bored out of his skull and feeling the clothes on him become a little too uncomfortable.

"Zane seen anything?" Kat asked.

He shook his head.

Across from them, the group of people suddenly broke in their conversation. The man, dressed in a Italian suit, looking towards the balcony doors suddenly stepped back, eyes wide open and speechless. His friend reached out in concern.

"You alright?"

"There was a woman," the man blinked. "Dressed in rags and she was just staring at us."

Dante was on his feet without even thinking, walking over to the group and pushing through to see out the window.

Glass door with nothing but the evening sky, stars and the balcony in a darkened haze.

"She was right there." Said the Italian dressed man.

"I think you're just seeing things."

Dante pulled away from the group, Kat giving him a curious look. He shrugged his shoulders and the two made to go back to their seats.

As Kat turned she stopped, an old woman, hunched at her upper back, dressed in a dark manta blocked her path.

"That's her! That's the woman." Shouted the Italian man with a hint of triumph in his voice .

The woman stared up at Kat, crow's feet becoming more apparent at the corners of her eyes as she turned her gaze to Dante. She was ugly to say the least from Dante's point of view, dark broken skin, warts and-

_Is that a mosquito?_

Something gurgled inside of the woman and Dante hand only a few seconds to react, to pull Kat out of the way before the woman's mouth opened and hoards of insects flew out straight into the group of people by the balcony door. Dante, falling to the ground on his back with Kat in his arms, heard them scream and the sound of buzzing and beating wings as the group was suddenly attacked. The black haze covered the group but Dante could see the stiffening of their bodies and the blood dripping through clothes.

The room was in up roar; people witnessing the attack now hurried out of the room, women screaming. Dante heard the two guards at the door guards calling out, trying to get them to leave orderly and to figure out what was going on.

Kat pulled herself to her feet, pushing off Dante's chest – which caused him a minor ache as the breath was pushed out of him.

"Are you okay?" she gave him a hand up.

As Dante stood he was about to reply but then he saw the woman turn on them, yellow teeth, a few flies buzzing around her face, she looked ready to attack again.

Dante pulled out Ebony, the black gun locked and ready to go, and as soon as he pulled the trigger a single bullet fired straight into the woman's head. Dante knew, as she fell back to the floor, that she wasn't dead and only as she fell to the ground did the hoard of black surrounding the group of humans turn on them, leaving half eaten carcasses behind – that dropped to the ground as soon as the horde left. Dante pulled Kat behind him ready to bring out Rebellion and try his best at protecting them, Kat gripped at his jacket and Dante raised his hand to summon Rebellion.

For a few seconds as the dark cloud neared them Dante know he wasn't exactly equipped with dealing with a bug horde. As it neared and Kat clenched onto his jacket harder, a cold mist covered them, surrounded them like a protective barrier and as soon as the first insect hit it the bug froze and died.

It was like liquid nitrogen to these insects , freezing them dead one by one till they had all fallen to the floor, amidst the weirdness of it all Dante spotted Sophia, standing at the back of the crowd trying to get out, hand raised and a look that spoke on far too many level for Dante to try and understand.

What he got out of it was that now, he owed her one.

The bugs died and as the last fell to the floor they broke down into dust, the woman too had disappeared in a similar fashion.

As the last people made it out of the room, an eerie silence enveloped the two, the people out in the next room and making their way into the main hall was just a distant beating in the back of Dante's head.

The crazy insect woman, was still here.

"Dante-" Kat said, a disjointed voice as her mind raced to figure out what was going on.

A scream came for the main hall and before Kat could warn Dante, he ran off after the sound.

Entering through the archway and into the hall he stopped as his feet hit a messy pulp of a ruptured human body on the floor. As if it had been eaten from the inside and something huge had burst from its stomach, the smell of sulphur invaded his nostrils and forced him to cover his mouth and turn away, his throat gagging.

_What the fuck?!_

He stepped to the side of the corpse and away, hearing Kat follow a few paces behind and with a similar reaction to him.

Dante stopped in the centre of the room; cases protecting the artefacts surrounded him forming semi circles, which continued to build out towards the edge of the room. Directly in front of him was the main door, which would've taken him out into the first main hall.

"Dante look out!" Kat pointed up to Dante's left and when the Nephilim was able to follow her gaze he managed to duck out of the way as another hoard of insects came flying out at him, they weaved through the cases with controlled ease forming back together as one large group before swarming down upon him.

Dante dodged again, knowing that even the quick spray of Ebony wouldn't work against them.

"Kat!" He ducked behind a case as the bugs came down a third time, "I need some help here!"

He rolled away and stood up; a quick thought of killing the woman would put an end to the insect barrage took hold in his mind. Well, it works that way in video games.

"Where is that bitch?" he called out to Kat, ducking down low as another attack came at him.

"I don't know! I can't see her."

"Well we need to find her!"

Dante cursed that he couldn't actually use his weapons now, Aquila would probably be his best bet but they're unruly, wild, and he might damage one of the cases while using them. And if he wanted to get paid he couldn't damage any of the collection. Although, it was looking to be a case of money or his life at this very minute, so much so he was tempted to fuck it.

But that 3K was definitely good.

The bugs attacked again, and Dante ducked behind one of the vases at the far end of the room, surprisingly this time the bugs slammed straight into it sending it tilting over Dante's head.

"Hey, hey!" he grabbed hold of the vase, not one of the collection items he noticed. "I can't have you fucking around with this crap!" He pushed it back up, only to be on the receiving end of another barrage to his left side, the bugs, somehow, picked him off his feet and sent him flying into the wall, breaking the red painted walls. He groaned as his body felt the pain of the hit.

"Dante!"

Head rolled to the side, snapping his eyes back into focus, he spotted the old lady walking towards Kat. Without even thinking he pushed himself up and pulled out Ebony, firing at the hag as soon as she was out from behind one of the cases. The bullet fired and with inhumane accuracy, hit the old lady straight in the head. She screamed and like before, vanished into a cloud of dust.

At the same time, her bugs also disappeared.

Dante pulled himself to his feet, ignoring as his ribs healed themselves..

"Are you alright?" he asked Kat, stepping over to her by the main door.

"Of course I am, thanks for that." She said.

Dante smiled, "No problem."

He reached over to the door and pushed it open, only to have something on the other side stop it. He glanced at Kat in confusion before slamming his body weight into the wood; the door budged but something behind it dragged and got caught under. Dante kicked at the base and this time to door properly opened.

"Oh my god." Kat was aghast, Dante himself confused as hell.

"What the hell?" he was about to add more to his sentence but all thoughts trailed off.

The entire main hall was cloaked in blood, human blood, Bodies like the one from before in the other room littered the main hall, all of them those of the security guards or the guests.

"What happened to them?" Sulphur crashed into their sinuses and Kat held up a hand to cover the smell, breathing through open lips. "It's like they were all eaten alive."

Dante followed her up to the balcony end looking down on the main hall, there was less bodies down there, most by the front door that had been frozen closed – the ice shining a misty white down its joints and over the handles – but what had happened to them remained the same.

"Zane!" he called out to the angel. "You here?"

Kat patted on his hand, pointing over to the double doors leading into the "International Wars" section of the museum. The doors were open. "He must have gone through there."

Dante took Kat by the hand and the two of them made their way down, stepping around the corpses towards the open doors. As they neared they head the sound of buzzing, faint and broken between something crashing against something hard.

Dante hurried in their pace, walking into the darkness of the room, he could faintly see the outline of more bodies, these ones the smell was stronger pungent and heat rose from them.

_What the shit…_

They continued on, passing war tanks and vehicles, dummies dressed in military gear holding machine guns and rifles under open fake trenches. All of these displays were light by a faint blue light coming from the ground.

"Dante?"

Zane came out from the one of the side rooms, shotgun in hand; he looked like he'd fallen through a what of demon guts, smelled like it too.

"What happened?" asked Dante reaching out when the angel suddenly grabbed onto the doorframe to support himself.

"Bugs, a lot of them."

"Yeah, had a few swarms try and kill me up top."

The angel shook his head, back resting on the doorframe so he could slide down to the ground, his legs gave out from underneath him and he fell the last few feet.

"Not swarms, big bugs." He raised his hands gesturing the size, "came out from the guests, those that I wasn't able to get out of the place. And just started trying to, like, I don't even know. There's more though," he pointed back into the room, "I trapped them in the Cold War room."

"You seen the lady?" asked Dante.

"Lady?"

"The woman causing all this," said Kat. "She was the one who summoned the bugs."

Zane shook his head. "No lady."

"Great" said Dante, "So now what?"

Zane pulled up a knee resting an arm across it.

"I was going to catch my breath and kill them off." he said.

"But then that hag will just turn up." Said Dante.

"Well yeah, Kat." The half angel rested his head back looking up at her. "Think that you could figure out what's caused the lady to come back? It has to be some sort of item, something in the collection; you just have to look around for something linked to her and destroy it."

"I thought we weren't allowed to destroy anything in the collection." Said Kat.

"Yeah, Lukas didn't specify that did he? That idiot_. _We'll just say it was my fault so Lukas doesn't throw a hissy fit."

"And what am I going to do?" asked Dante

"Help me kill those insects that's what."

* * *

Kat closed the door behind her, clamping a hand over her nose to drown out the smell. She made her way back through the main hall and up the stairs, jumping over a few steps were the body of one of the guests had begun to deteriorate and form some sort of black sludge over the stairs. She grasped hold of the banister as she made her way up, her other hand grasping hold of a handgun. A gun she really didn't want to end up using.

Her shoes made it difficult to walk normally but she managed, entering the second floor hall and closing the door behind her. The body to the far right had completely gone, now just this black puddle of, Kat didn't want to find out. She pulled herself away from it and walked to the centre of the room, the glass cases standing all around her, each item inside with its own little white card and name tag. She made a brief calculation in her head to see how long it'll take to check every one of the artefacts.

A little too long than she had originally hoped.

Staring by the first row looking at the main door she began her search checking each white card for anything that could relate to the woman attacking them. Hopefully, that the woman wouldn't catch on that she was the one tasked to try and destroy whatever was keeping her here. And so, come after her instead of Dante and Zane.

Pulling away from the first case with disappointment she made her way to the next one, pulling Dante's suit jacket over her shoulders.

* * *

"Behind here huh?"

"Yeah." Zane pumped the shotgun in hand, nodding over for Dante to stand at the other side of the door frame. When the Nephilim was in place he nodded, eyes asking if he was ready, when Dante nodded in return Zane stepped away from the door. "They will either come out all at once or pick us off one by one." The angel warns, by ready.

Dante smirks, Aquila ready to go in his hands, and his guns loaded. He stepped back as Zane raised his hand at the door. The ice freezing it to the frame began to crack, melting and snapping at the half angel as it broke. Once free, the door seemed to shudder and concave but still held shut. Zane shifted back and without warning threw himself at the door.

The wood splintered and the half angel fell forward into the room, catching himself quickly and raising his gun, Dante quickly followed. Both men looked around the room, Zane stepping ahead checking down the open door on the left wall while Dante made a check of the whole room, like Zane had said before this room was entirely dedicate to the Cold War. The whole room was void of displays but instead housed three smaller round structures containing seating areas, TV screens used to show clips from the war and the larger one had a War Room set up inside, containing an interactive map of the world and portraits of the world leaders.

"Clear." Said the angel.

"Same here." Dante turned away from one of the display rooms and back to the angel.

"Where they go?" asked Dante.

"I have absolutely no idea"

"Think they got out?"

Zane shook his head. "Can't have. I've set up a barrier around the whole place. No one's getting in or out unless I allow it, or I'm dead."

Dante followed the angel as he stared down the corridor in front of him, the Nephilim able to see only the walls and a small section in the centre of the corridor – floor lights shined in these areas.

Zane raised his gun, earning a confused look from Dante, when the Nephilim opened his mouth to question Zane raised a clenched fist. Had Dante not spent years watching action movies he would've been even more confused but when followed by the angel pointing two fingers to his eyes and then down the corridor Dante immediately pulled out Ebony and Ivory.

They didn't move forward, just stood there watching. A part of Dante questioned if Zane was actually able to see something he wasn't, which to Dante's own mind didn't make much sense. The other part of him was more than happy to trust the guy for the moment.

Muffled pinpricks of sound crept through the corridor, as if thousands of tiny legs were walking along the stone floor, Dante felt his body tense ready for the recoil of his girls for when he fired, the sound came closer but when passed through the small are of light in the corridor, it continued on towards them. Dante felt something sting at the back of his neck, a sense of doubt.

The sound came closer, and still nothing could be seen, Dante glanced over to the half angel face. He still seemed determined that something was down there.

The sounds stopped, and Dante was heavily tempted to tell the half angel to give up. A crack in the ceiling above them stopped his chance, and the next thing he knew was witnessing the whole ceiling coming down on them. The weight of dozens of dog sized bugs falling down on top. Dante heard the half angel cry out and the whole world suddenly turned a misted blue.

Cold water dripped onto his face and a few seconds later Dante felt the half angel closer than he was previously, breathing warm air on his shoulder, his hands outstretched on either side of him.

They were trapped in a dome of ice, the ceiling falling down on top of it began to slide down the sides, bits still falling hit the head of the dome and threatened to break it. Dante heard a groan of pain and muttered curse from the angel.

"Thanks" he said.

"…"

The angel lowered his arms, he stepped back noticing how close he was to Dante and reached over to his gun on the floor. Dante watched him breathe in heavily once, letting it out quietly through his mouth. He stood feet at shoulders distance apart and without warning the dome exploded around them, ice shards a sharp as glass flew like shrapnel taking out the creatures around them. They squeaked in response and an almighty scream was heard from down the corridor, Zane, unaffected by the sudden destruction, stormed his way down the corridor unloading shot after shot into the darkness at the end, the screams sounded, less infuriated more in shock and pain.

Dante watched as the lights in the corridor turned on as the half angel moved.

"Dante!" Zane sounded a little… pissed. "Kill those fucking bugs and figure out how this maldito woman needs to die!"

Dante turned around, the bugs around him, more or less like giant mosquitos now that he actually got a good look at them, were shaking off the wounds, long legs drumming on the ruined floor as If they were communicating to each other.

"Dante!"

"I don't need to be told twice!" he shouted back. Pulling the triggers on Ebony and Ivory into the creatures.

* * *

"No. no. no. no. no."

Kat pulled away tempted to give up entirely, she had checked the whole collection by now and nothing, absolutely nothing, had any link to the strange woman.

She was just about to try and contact Zane when she spotted something out of the corner of her eye, the tapestry from earlier depicting the Pukjinskwes. Something in her clicked and she ran over to the tapestry.

_"Painting of the story of "Kuloscap and the Witch" by Art College graduate Hilary Milton."_

Kat internally died.

_"For details on the story refer to the display below."_

Kat looked down, and there was a small pedestal with an empty display case, the white card inside told her that the missing item was a part of the garment worn by tribe leaders, this one however was supposedly worn by the witch when she became clan leader.

If it wasn't there then that means that the woman, the witch, was carrying it around with her.

She had to get back to Dante.

* * *

Bullets cases littered the floor at Dante's feet, bugs juggled in the air with each shot they took before falling to the ground when Dante got bored and moved onto the next animal. The Nephilim darted and dodged any and all attacks that came his way, weaving himself around one of the round display rooms. He gave his girls a brief moment to breathe; shooting a lonely insect in the face when it decided to came and join him.

He rolled out form cover unloading more clips into the creatures. Rebellion appeared on his back and he grasped hold of the handle, feeling his demon powers churning inside the blade turning it into the demonic form of Ophion. He pulled out the weapon and began pulling the creatures towards varying in-between punching, kicking of shooting them in the head.

In the end, Dante was more or less toying with the creatures; they didn't function as a coherent unit anymore, attacking randomly and without much force. Individually, they were ridiculously easy.

The only problem was the numbers, and had a normal human been fighting them they would've run out of bullets and energy to keep going. Obviously Dante wasn't and so continued to pummel his way through them, diminishing the numbers and reducing them down to four.

"Alright. Who's next?" He chuckled when three raised themselves up on front feet and lunged at him.

Two rose over his height but he simple smiled and withdrew Revenant and killed them without thinking twice about if he could hit both of them in one shot. The third he grabbed hold of by the face its wings beat rapidly, body curling in and legs crawling, it wriggled and strained under his grasp.

"Dante?"

Dante dropped kicked the bug ignoring it as it hit the far wall.

"Kat?"

Kat entered the room, relief on her face as she ran over to him. Dante noticed she was still wearing his jacket.

"Found it?" he asked.

"No. But I think I know where it is." She said. "Can you get in contact with Zane?"

Dante nodded, he pulled out his phone and called the angel.

"What is it?" Zane's voice sounded harsh.

Dante handed the phone over to Kat, she took it with a small thanks.

"You're looking for some sort of tribe leader thing, like part of a headdress or a weapon or something." She told him. "She's a Pukjunskwes, a witch."

Dante couldn't hear if the angel replied or not, and when Kat looked up at him with a concerned face

"He's not answering." She said. "Where- Dante look out!"

He heard it before he saw it, the fourth insect plucked up enough courage to take a bite at him, flying high in the air and swooping down at them. Dante twisted round, Revenant out and shot the thing in the head, as it fell Dante landed a boot to its side, twisting hips so it collided with one of the round structures to his right.

"Didn't anyone tell you. Swooping is bad." Dante smiled and turned back to Kat who was again replaying the information. She nodded once and hung up.

"He says that the front doors open and that we should get out, cops are supposedly turning up."

_Damn._

Not bothering to ask if the half angel was alright, he led Kat out. Ignoring the look when she noticed the giant hole in the ceiling.

For once, the damage wasn't his fault.

When they arrived at the main door - Kat explaining to Dante what she thought had happened to all the bodies that were once there, and now just vats of black sludge, Dante kicked at the door. Watching it break open and the smell from the museum forced its way past them and out into the midnight air. As expected police cars, and a few of the guests, stood behind barricades at the bottom of the stairs. A feeling of sickness rushed through Dante and he immediately put his guns away, and Rebellion, hoping that the cops weren't going to end up sending him back to prison.

Voices broke out below the two, the busty woman gushing about how glad she was that Dante and Kat had made it out alive, cops holding up guns and shouting at them to declare themselves, media reporters pushing themselves against the barriers calling up to them, paramedics at the back.

"They're with me!"

A few of the cops looked around, the reporters stopped and Dante watched as Lukas shoved himself past one of the people standing in front of the barrier. He shoved a badge in the guy's face continuing to make his way up the stairs, Dante heard the guy on security call out to the cops before he looked up Lukas.

"What the flying fuck happened?" he asked.

"Just a messed up witch." Dante replied.

"Oh, sure because a witch just goes round killing half of the most prestigious people in the fuckin' country for shits and giggles."

Dante shrugged to with Lukas simply shook his head.

"Where's Zane?"

"Back there." Dante pointed behind him with a thumb. "Said for us to go on ahead."

Lukas raised a hand, and clipped him over the back of the head, hard.

Dante winced in pain, stumbling slightly as Lukas muttered something and made his way inside.

"The fuck?" Dante turned his head to watch the man noticed the black on the floor; he seemingly looked interested at it for a few seconds before turning back and heading further into the museum.

Kat lead them down the stairs where they were both dragged by a cop to one of the ambulances. Both of them were told to sit at the back of the van where a woman dressed in green overalls came to check on them.

"You guys alright?" she asked, placing her bag beside Kat.

"Yeah." Said Dante. "We're fine."

A hand crept over to his, and he took hold of it firmly. Watching in the corner of his eyes as Kat seemed to relax.

* * *

Deemed healthy enough to not go to A&E, interviewed and able to return home so they could rest, the two were brought back to the shop by one of the police officers – the same one that interviewed them. They quickly climbed out of his car to be away from the awkward silence within it, broken only by the radio spouting out codes and words Dante couldn't make out.

"I'll come by in the morning for another report okay?" The young looking police officer gave them a wave and drove off.

Kat, who was deemed mature enough to have keys, opened the shop and let the two of them in. She closed the door behind them and leaned back against the cool handlebars, Dante strolled into the centre of the room, pulling off that infernal red tie and dropping it.

"Well," he turned to Kat, realising how badly he smelt. "That was better that I hoped."

* * *

ugghhh, fml. I hate exams. Finished now though.

Okay, thoughts on chapter? Good, bad, terrible? Probably terrible, I had this whole thing set out for this chapter and it just failed, as you can see. Did anyone get the Dragon Age refrence that I **had** to put in? becasue I'm sad that way.


	9. Chapter 9: Welcome to CAT-6

_**- CHAPTER 9: WELCOME TO CAT-6 - **_

_"CAT-6 this is Ghost I have visual on the target."_

_"This is M, I'm in position."_

_"Ottoman in position."_

_"This is JD! Err, yeah, I'm in position."_

_"Keep it cool JD. Soldier in position. Ghost we need numbers."_

_"Standard military hardware, 17 men in total, one female civilian – scientist."_

_"I say we kill 'em all."_

_"Contracts to terminate all hostile and get the tech, we don't kill civies M."_

_"But she obviously works for them. And what if she goes back to her boss huh? That's our heads on the line."_

_"Ottoman, ideas?"_

_"We deal with her if she resists."_

_"Alright, Ghost, watch our backs."_

_"Yes sir."_

_"Rest of you, move in!"_

_._

**Carter "Soldier" Price**

**D.O.B – January 1973**

**Affiliation – United States Air Force Pilot (previous), CAT-6 (currently)**

**Details : Discharged [without honours]. Joined CAT-6 after recommendation from Alexander Kavka. **

When I was younger, a friend of my father's told me that you can tell whether someone had ever held a gun before. It all comes down to that moment, when they pull the trigger.

It is not about the hesitation, or the thought, it is about the practice, the experience, the way the hand grips at the metal, how the body changes and moves with it. When the trigger is pulled and the bullet hits the enemy's head, the enemy's wife and child, their friend, co-worker, general, the look in their eyes tells you everything.

Tells you whether they truly wanted this reality or not.

Killing another human is a trained action at first, they teach you to fire without thinking and when you do it, it's clean, flawless. But, the moment you think, the moment of weakness you allow yourself to experience, that's when you can break.

When I watched my first victim die on top of his mother's dead corpse, a boy who had come at me with a knife, not even strong enough to cut through my gear, I thought. Thought about what I had done. How it now made me a murderer, a man of sin in God's eyes, but, at the same time, I had protected myself, allowed myself to live another day.

It was liberating, and made me realise how disgusting this world was, that I could kill a child without thinking about it, without allowing him to take revenge for the last other member of his family, his guardian.

I had the arrogance to take that from him.

I had been trained to take that from him.

_._

_"JD!"_

_"phew. Thanks Ghost."_

_"I'm not going to be able to watch your back once you go in."_

_"JD, move it!"_

_"Ottoman, 2 coming in on your right."_

**.**

**Alexander "Ottoman" Kavka**

**D.O.B – February 1985**

**Affiliation – Russian Federation SPETSNAZ GRU (previous), **

** CAT-6 (currently)**

**Details: Data withheld by Russian Government **

The Americans may speak of liberty, and justice, and freedom, they talk of ideals and moralities, freedom of speech and belief but they treat war like it's a sibling or a toy on their hand. It disgusts me that someone is subjected in their country for being different, treated like us, like non-Americans.

They want a world of freedom, but when an American goes to war, their freedom doesn't follow them. Death does.

They pillage and destroy everything in their path, rape and murder innocents. They do this and speak of their wins, expect the world to bow to their feet, revere them, see them as the top.

They may be the strongest country in the world, but I will never allow myself to believe them. They can't save the world and they cannot, will never dictate it for the rest of us.

America pisses me off, and if it wasn't for my friends I would've left the country years ago.

_._

_"So err, what are we looking for again specifically."_

_"BFG's"_

_"Did you even read the report JD?"_

_"I read it! – skimmed read it."_

_"You just looked at how much we're getting paid.."_

_"5K just for something so simple like this! It's so cool."_

_"Feds must be pretty desperate what's ever in that case huh?"_

_"Don't know.. Ghost, see anything?"_

_"Nothing sir."_

**.**

**Jasenko "JD" Dragomirov**

**D.O.B - August 1988**

**Affiliation – Ground Forces of the Russian Federation (previous), CAT-6 (currently)**

**Details: Data Withheld by Russian Government **

Hey, don't mind Alex okay? He's just a little tense, the whole talk of demons is right out of a book of nightmares huh? Like that story about Pandora's Box, that's what Ghost said anyway.

You're civilian huh? M said you were, you know how to kill demons too, that's why you're with us on this job. How long you been killing demons for huh? Must be a long time, though, you don't look older than me though.

How old are you? You even old enough to hold a gun properly?

_._

_"JD."_

_"Yes?"_

_"Got anything?"_

_"You know I'm no good with computers M! I mean, there's so many buttons and I don't even know German!"_

_"Move over."_

_"Wait, is this it?"_

_"You idiot, you've just closed the whole program!"_

_"'Alright, got the stuff everyone, just waiting on Ottoman. Be there in 2."_

_"Hey M. What's this button do?"_

_"Push it and I'll shove my gun so far up your ass-"_

_"Cut the chat you two."_

**.**

**Jason "M" Morgan**

**D.O.B: UNKNOWN**

**Affiliation: CAT- 6**

**Details: No Data**.

Want info on me? So you can use it against me? No fucking way man, go screw yourself for all I care.

Wanna laugh at my name, "M", do it. Won't be saying that when I tie you up and decide whether or not to put a bullet in your head.

It's kept me off the grid, easier being known to clients by alphabet letters than codenames like "Hawkeye" or "Iron Man".

I like my movies alright?

Either way, don't go expecting any favours, we're not your babysitters, pull your own weight like the good little kid you are and we'll see if you're really up for working with us.

_._

_"Hey, heard about that new guy we're getting?"_

_"What guy?"_

_"No one's talking to you JD."_

_"I wasn't asking you."_

_"Stop it you two."_

_"The guy on the file we got. Some "Dante" kid."_

_"Feds guy?"_

_"Nope, it's from the file from our contractor."_

_"Lukas knows him?"_

_"Seems like it."_

**.**

**Dominic "Ghost" Walker.**

**D.O.B – November 1987**

**Affiliation – UK RAF (previous), UN Peacekeeping (previous), CAT-6 (currently)**

**Details: Resigned from official military work after squad was charged with human rights violations in Second Congo War. Joined CAT-6 after mission in Azerbaijan.**

I'm not a monster. Well, that's what I keep telling myself. After everything that happened back then, in that town. God I can't believe I even looked away from it, I should've reported them, I knew I should have.

Too late now.

Soldier tells me that it wasn't my fault, that it was just blame wrongly crossed onto me at the trails. Can't believe that out of all the squads, mine gets it. I was the rookie then and without evidence on me they couldn't charge me like the others but still, that's one huge black mark on my record.

So I quit. Met Soldier in a quaint town over in France, joined the squad here soon after.

We're a tight group, we look out for each other, no matter how much M and JD seem to fight and Alex looks like he's gonna tear everyone's heads off. We stick together, don't always get on but it's like a family you know?

It's nice, having people that get you.

Still, demons huh? Never thought they'd exist, must've been pretty scary when they appeared everywhere. Like the fabrication of everything evil in the world.

We must be pretty messed up.

_._

_"Okay everyone, lets wrap this up."_

_"Think we'd get back in time for a few at the bar?"_

_"Probably not. Doesn't mean we can still have some back at the house."_

_"Well I'm up for that, Ottoman, JD you in?"_

_"Of course! Now we're all 5 grand richer."_

_"I suppose a drink couldn't hurt."_

_"Ghost?"_

_"If the rest of you don't mind me tagging along."_

_"It's a deal."_

_"Alright everyone, let's get home."_

* * *

Lukas driving on a misty Saturday morning was walking into a kamikaze stunt, making sharp turns, ignoring traffic lights, speeding, all successfully under this blank daze as he stared off into another world. Dante knew he was still there; half concentrating on the road, half seething about something, but anything else that happened around him was lost. Dante grabbed hold of the handle on the door as Lukas made another turn.

The blond settled back as they turned into a highway, settling the car behind a red pickup truck. Dante looked briefly at the vehicle before turning his attention back to the man next to him, watching as he shifted gears in a tight yank of the handle.

He'd been like this since he arrived this morning, the man hadn't said anything as to why though. He barged into the shop, throwing something down on Zane's desk before telling Dante he was going to take him to a job over the border. The one with the mercs.

Dante hadn't been told anything but it seems that Lukas's previous group that was there aren't breathing anymore.

Dante expected to be going in alone, and so when Lukas more or less screamed at him to get "his arse in the car" he grabbed his three guns and ignored that Zane was supposed to be coming with them.

Seemed Lukas didn't give a fuck.

They drove out of Capulet and hit the countryside within minutes, driving along roads and the like till they hit the highway, from there Lukas pulled off into some place called "Freedom's Progress" – a national park with over 150 different species of animal and rare plants.

Not that Dante actually cared.

Hitting the dirt paths that ran through the entirety of the park – it wasn't particularly huge, just acres of woodland and open meadows that have been left to cultivate. The nearest town was just to the North of them when Lukas finally pulled to a stop in front of an old house. You know, the ones that look exactly like it come out of those horror movies where the teenage kids go to "have some fun" and they all end up getting killed one after the other. No, not the wooden shacks, those pretty houses by the lakes, that have the boat and the tyre swing on the old tree.

Yeah, it was one of those houses.

"Move it Nephilim." Lukas opened his car door and made his way up to the house, leaving Dante to stumble out after him. The blond stepped up onto the wooden porch, banging a fist in a rhytimc set of knocks. As Dante came up behind the man, he heard footsteps from behind the door.

"It's me." Lukas bit out, raising a hand to the handle, "I've got the kid with me."

Clicks and latches being unhooked sounded from behind the door. Lukas opened it and stepped through.

Inside it was exactly like Dante imagined , bare, everything of value had been stripped out. But he didn't expect there to be four, military trained men standing around the hallway looking at him.

Lukas stepped into the centre of the hall, dropping a bag at the base of the stairs looking up at some Eastern European guy sat half way up. The blond made eye contact with the others, ending up at someone behind Dante, who closed the door.

"Where JD?" Lukas asked.

"Out." Came low grumble from one of the men to Dante's right. Short cut hair, military uniform (the stuff they wear off duty, not the suits) and a body build like a tank. The guy wasn't big, just heavy, sturdy, like some sort of battering ram.

That didn't even make sense did it?

"Fine." Lukas turned to Dante, leaning back. "Dante welcome to CAT-6, CAT-6 this is Dante your temp."

Grunts and nods came Dante's way, and he gave a short wave in return.

"Dante doesn't know the details, Carter you're to fill him in."

The 'big' guy from before nodded at the blond.

"Everyone play nice, get this job done and don't die like my last group alright."

With that, Lukas left, slamming the door behind him. Dante didn't say anything, not sure what to even start with, when the man left. It seemed that the members of CAT-6 didn't know what to say either.

When the sound of Lukas's car started, a deep rumble in the background, and faded out as he drove away the musky damp atmosphere suddenly became a lot less tense.

"Well, that was good." The guy next to Carter, another military dressed man, smaller and younger looking smirked and laughed as he looked across to his teammates.

"Does that guy ever smile?" asked Carter.

"Probably not, seems he worse than Jason on Monday's" the guy on the stairs, accent thick with a Russian heritage dark hair and sharp features, stood up and walked down the remainder of the stairs.

The guy to Dante left, looked offended, he must be Jason.

"Yeah, well fuck you Alex," He pointed at the Russian man, "I hate Mondays, so does everyone else here." He cocked his head up and smirked, his lips curling up on one side, Dante noticed the buzz cut hair and the line of silver studs running down the side of one ear.

"Nope, Monday's are pretty cool." Said Carter, obviously finding something amusing.

"We get Monday's off normally." Said the man next to him.

"Yeah well, Mondays suck for me." Said Jason. Alex rolled his eyes and bent down to the bag Lukas had thrown down earlier, he unzipped and poked inside. Carter and the guy next to him turned to Dante, Jason listening in but watching Alex.

"So, Dante yeah?" Carter held out a hand, bandaged up and Dante could see blood seeping through the white.

"Yeah," Dante looked down, "You alright there?"

"Oh this? It's fine, just a bullet wound." He took hold of Dante's hand and shook it, smiling all the while. He wasn't the sort of guy who you think was going to kill you from his sheer size but then has a 'heart of gold', Dante wasn't too sure if the guy was going to pull him into a headlock and break his neck with that smile, or he was genuinely being nice.

"I told you to watch your back in there sir." Said the other male, shaking Dante's hand after Carter let go. "I'm Dom, the team's sniper. Welcome to CAT-6."

"Thanks."

Dom pointed back at Carter. "He's our Captain, CO, whatever, basically with him having the most military training out of all of us we all follow him." He looked over to Jason and Alex. "Jason's a full on Merc through and through, he's a bit of a prick sometimes but he's good in hand to hand and technical details, Alex is our point, Russian Spec Ops. There's also JD, he's a…"

"Noob." supplied Jason.

"Cherry." said Carter.

"Pain in my ass." Said Alex.

".. Interesting character, Russian army as well" said Dom.

Dante nodded, seemed to him that these guys got on pretty well, he looked over to Alex and Jason who seemed to be debating on how they were going to spilt the goods inside the bag. Dom muttered something to Carter and then stepped away towards what Dante could see was a kitchen at the back of the house.

Alex picked up the bag, agreeing something with Jason.

"Captain, how about we show the kid the job huh?" said Alex

"Sure," Carter motioned for Dante to follow the Russian and Jason into one of the side rooms.

"Welcome to my brain." Said Jason, gesturing out to the three desks set up in a semi-circle in the middle of the room. The desks on either side housed two small screens each with an array of numbers, programmes and searches running across them at a speed Dante couldn't keep up with. On the centre desk was a single large computer, sitting on standby. Behind all this the Nephilim spotted cases of military gear, weapons, food packages and more tech thrown across the place in ordered chaos.

And Dante knew that there was such a thing as ordered chaos.

Jason sat down on the only chair at the desk, Carter stepping up behind him while Alex threw the bag into the chaos.

"Alright. Jason give the kid the full on." Ordered Carter, folding his arms and nodding towards the screen for Dante to focus on.

"Yes sir." Jason, ran his hands over the keyboard, not even touching it and the computer turned to life demanding a password. A few finger movements and the green light was given, the screen turning into a search programme, a 3D model of the earth spinning in the back ground while red locators ran through a series of coordinates set on the left hand of the screen. "Okay," the screen changed and a newspaper report opened up.

_Biomedical research building construction uncovers ancient ruins_

"'bout six months ago H,M Roman," A image popped up of the man. A face Dante had never seen before in a dark blue suit smiling at the camera like he owned the world. "A well know billionaire business man and owner of the Henry Roman Enterprises, the guys that own about 40% of all companies in the States, bought this entire park." A map of the park shows up. "Those nature freaks pull a funk stunt 'bout the whole thing but Roman ignores them. Then he starts working on this area" a section of the park is highlighted, newspaper reports and images of the are showing up. "surveying, setting up security cameras and the like, then about a month later he starts digging, and then we find this."

Jason moves to hit the enter key and the map zooms in, a current bird's eye view of the area Roman was working on filled the whole screen, from a first look it was just a bunch of old building layouts and what looked like destroyed towers

"Pull up the layout map, don't think the kid get's it." Said Alex.

Jason ran his fingers over the keyboard and the image turned into blue prints, the main screen demonstrating the extent of the old buildings and how far they reached, while a second screen split off and formed a cross-section of deep underground tunnels that ran for miles underground.

It took a few seconds for Dante to get it.

"Is that a city?"

"An old city running right underneath our feet, hundreds of years old." Clarified Jason with a smirk.

"Shit."

"Yeah, Roman got excited when he found this out though, sent some archaeologists and the like down there, had Lukas and a few other contractors provide protection with merc groups. Basically, it was to be a simple search and recover thing, Roman trying to find out if there was anything down there. In the end." A image of a creature popped up, blurred but Dante could make it out.

It was a demon, human in appearance but with a gaping rounded mouth with rows of small vampire teeth, black eyes and peeling, bleeding skin.

"They didn't make it out." Finished Jason.

"How'd you get the info then?" asked Dante.

"Lukas's previous group sent details nearly every day to him while they were down there. He passed them to us when we took the job." Answered Carter.

"You think you're better than the previous merc groups then?" Dante looked away from the demon, the more he looked the more he realised that he wasn't at all excited to be going face to face with that thing anytime soon.

"But we are." said Jason. "unlike those fucking noobs, we've dealt with demons before."

"Not to these suspected numbers though," said Carter, "which is why we asked for your help."

Dante nodded, turning back to Carter and Alex.

"Wasn't there supposed to be another?" asked Alex.

"Yeah, Zane was supposed to be helping out right?" Jason put his computer to standby.

"Well, Lukas didn't tell him to come with us when we left." said Dante.

"Something happen?" asked Alex, "Lukas is a demon, sometimes I wonder if I should put a bullet between his eyes."

"Dunno," Dante shrugged. "Zane hasn't been with it recently though, ever since our last mission he's been pretty distracted and cranky as hell, it's as if he's constantly thinking about something."

Carter gave him a concerned look, glancing off to the side.

"Well, if things turn ugly we could use and extra hand, he's a good shot and his powers would be useful."

"Hopefully they won't. I'm going to give JD a call, that idiot's probably lost himself." Alex gave a curt nod in leaving to the group before stepping out and back into the hall. Carter mentioned something about checking the generator and left shortly after.

"You know how to use a gun?" asked Jason.

"Yeah."

"Good." The man stood, walking over to a case on the floor, opening it up and pulling out an assault rifle. "Lukas told us shit about you. Nothing other than you're working with Zane and you're coming over to give us a hand." He loaded the gun, pulled the safety and looked down the scope, he pulled a face at something and sat down, kicking a few thing out of the way to give him enough room.

"Well I got given a piece of paper with six names on it and short briefs on each."

"Oh yeah? What did mine say?"

Dante though back to when he'd been given the paper by Zane, who shrugged at how small it was and turned back to his pool game with Kat.

"Just your name and that you were with CAT-6."

"Nothing else?"

Dante shook his head walking over to him.

"Good. Here," Jason raised the gun. "The M4A1, fires .223 calibre or 5.56mm NATO round depending on whose gun you're borrowing. Three groups; safe, semi-automatic, fully automatic also known as 'S-1-F'." at each group he pulled the catch on the side. Putting it back to safe he handed it over to Dante.

Dante felt the weight, knew these this gun was what Mundus's SWAT teams used back in Limbo City, hell every soldier used this gun at least once. He could get used to it, but then, at the same time, it just reminded him of that trade on the docks. With the bullets flying at them when Vergil decided to shoot Lilith, Dante's heart pounding in his throat when he ran over to help Kat, hoping that a bullet wouldn't target her.

Dante passed the gun back, Jason placing it back into the case alongside a Mark XIX Desert Eagle.

"When we going to be leaving then?" asked Dante.

"Don't know." Jason sighed and closed the case. "I've got something to finish before we do and we're still waiting on the all clear by the local authorities. Probably be ready to go by the morning."

_Great, a whole day to spend with a bunch of mercs I've never met before, beats laying around the shop all day._

Jason turned away distracted by the contents in one of the boxes nearby, Dante was going to watch him until something new happened when his phone went off. Dante smiled as Kat's name flashed on his phone, opening up the text message

HEY. YOU ALRIGHT? -12:04

YEH. JUST MET THE MERCS. – 12:05

He stepped away from Jason back into the hall settling himself on the stairs.

WHAT THEY LIKE? – 12:05

SEEM ALRIGHT. FRIENDLY ENOUGH. NOT SURE ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT I'M GONNA BE ABLE TO WORK WITH THEM.. – 12:06

I'M SURE YOU'LL BE FINE. JUST PLAY NICE. – 12:06

Dante smiled, fingers tapping a reply.

I'LL TRY. HOWS EVERYTHING? – 12:06

TENSE. LUKAS JUST CAME BACK. HE AND ZANE ARE ARGUING AGAIN, ABOUT THAT NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM AND SOME WOMAN. – 12:07

Dante shifted back when he received Kats text, woman? The only woman there of any substantial notice was that fat lady and she wasn't really something he'd figure they'd be fighting-

Shit, Sophia.

Had Zane seen her? Shit, had she approached him, tried to kill him? Is that why he'd been living in the shop for the past week or so?

WOMAN? – 12:09 He replied.

DON'T KNOW WHO SHE IS BUT LUKAS ISN'T HAPPY THAT ZANE NEVER TOLD HIM ABOUT THIS WOMAN, AWKWARD LOVE TRIANGLE? – 12:10

If you counted that the woman wanted to kill Zane sure.

MAYBE. – 12:11

Dante closed his phone, bringing it up as he rested elbows on his knees. Something in his stomach made him feel sick.

* * *

Kat's morning had been spent reading and listening to Dantes complaints, this time it was about how he was entirely convinced that the sofa was going to murder his back one day. She told him to move, mostly to shut him up for two seconds, but then he just shook his head and proclaimed he "couldn't be arsed". She'd left him to his musing and went out to get some coffee for the both of them, coming back to find him gone.

She'd gone upstairs, to find Zane cleaning Dante's room. She noticed that he hadn't changed out of the clothes he wore yesterday, and when she passed Dante's coffee to him he didn't made eye contact and smile, asked her how she was or if she was going to do anything that day like normal. Instead, he'd taken it off her and sulked back into his room.

Kat figured he was just having a moment; guys seem to have PSM like moments, and walked back downstairs and back to the laptop. Wondering if Dante was enjoying his next job, and by enjoying she meant hating it.

That was about an hour ago. She smiled thinking about it again, pulling her coffee cup up to her lips and drinking the last of it. She placed the cup back down, next to Zane's photo frame, before going back to work. She'd been given access to the half angel's laptop, access Dante had asked her to exploit in as many sober and half-drunken ways as possible, she said no every time of course.

Currently she was looking at the local news, watching reports and the like, but her attention was only half there. The other half was concentrating on trying to make out what Zane and Lukas, mostly Lukas, were arguing about in the angels bedroom upstairs.

So far she'd managed to figure out that some woman was involved, and that she wasn't someone to be treated lightly. Also supposedly, Zane was to tell Lukas when he first saw her immediately.

To be honest Kat was feeling more awkward by the second, a part of her tempted to leave the shop and go work at the local café on the high street.

Dante's texts were't helping either.

"You have absolutely no concept of how much danger you are in do you?" Lukas had pulled Zane's bedroom door open. "_If_ she's figured out what you are, she'll be looking out for you and the other two seeing as you were pretty much the only ones to survive that museum gig, and if she knows, if for some fucking reason she's figured it out that you're a half angel _she'll kill you_." He stormed down the stairs, Kat quickly glanced up to see him spin round, pointing a finger up at Zane who'd tried to argue back. "Don't think that she's not on to you. We both know how angels fucking work and I wouldn't be surprised if she's been stalking the place out to see if her ideas are right."

He makes his way to the bottom of the stairs, aiming for the front door, but he stops at the bottom.

"What is it Zane?" he turns back on the half angel, his words spiteful and savage. "Why has none of this gone through your head?" Zane is half way down the stairs, and even at being physical higher than the blond, Kat saw that the angel was tense.

"What is it going to take to get you to pull out your fucking finger and do something about it? Are you so fucking useless that you're going to do nothing but cry in your room like a fucking child until she goes away! Tell me Zane!" Lukas roared.

Kat couldn't help but stare now, watching as Lukas looked ready to break something in half and Zane, completely straight faced.

"I'm waiting for her to gather her courage to come to me." Said Zane, his voice calm and making his words sound like they were completely obvious.

"What?"

"She knows of my heritage, you do too of course, I'm not like the others and if I was she would've killed me the moment she saw me in that museum." He smiled, confident, Kat may have even said he looked cocky. "She'll find some way to kill me without getting her hands dirty, but, she knows that it won't work and one day, she'll have to come after me herself. Then.. well I'll just tear her apart."

Lukas hesitated, biting down on his lip as he tried to argue back but something halted him. Kat pulled her gaze away looking busy on the laptop as Lukas quickly made his way out, slamming the double doors behind him.

She kept up her facade, right until Zane walked up to the desk and reached into the desk draw for his car keys.

"Going somewhere?" she asked.

"Other side of Northern Alderidge City, about five hour drive from here."

"Why?"

"Dante picked up a call from an old friend just before the museum gig, obviously failed to tell me about it. Demons attacked the area, just one giant horde that my friend suspects were being controlled in some description. Situations under control over there now but he wants me to go over regardless. Check out these so called demons." The half angel grabbed a clean shirt from the wash basket sat on the coffee table, stripping off the old one. "It was a closed incident but he's worried something like it will happen again."

"Closed incident?"

"One that wasn't reported on the news."

"So what does get reported on the news, like those rapes and murders, is that what was going to happen over there?" it was just a speculation Kat had made on the spot but..

"You think all these weird deaths that have been happening are related to this incident in Alderidge?"

"I think that a incident like that was most likely planned especially if the demons seemed like they were being controlled." Said Kat

"And this just came to you Katherine?" He picked up his jacket from the coat hanger by the kitchen door.

"It's just a thought." She admitted with a smile.

"I assumed as much."

* * *

Sorry for the 3 weeks+ wait. I had finals, house is in the precess of being repainted (by myself) and I had to make up 6 new characters to work alongside Dante (& Zane) in the up coming chapters. If you're Resident Evil fans you may recognise the names or find similarities with the 5 shown so far, but they're not actually those characters, completely different set ups and backgrounds etc I've done the whole works for this team.

CAT-6 & Dante are pretty much going to fill up the next chapter or two depending on how I feel, also no Zane. Like, at all. I want to get all Dante for the next load of chapters and if CAT-6 goes down well in my opinion and I get any positive reception on them, my brother came up with this GENUIS idea for a stupid side story for them to have with Dante - probably a chapter long or so - that I am slightly buzzing to write now, but I have to concentrate on this current story arc.

But even if you lot hate CAT-6 I'm still doing that chapter, freaking brilliant idea in my opinion. Just saying.

If you have the time please drop me a review, even if it's just "this suck, coz of reasons". To be honest I'd know instantly what reasons they would be! (gramatical errors, huge plot holes and basic shit like that)

Thanks for reading this, as always. :)

EDIT: I've changed the last lot of dialogue & fiddled with the names of CAT-6.

Also I'd like to HUGELY thanks everyone that's reviewd, fav'd & followed this. It makes me so happy to see the numbers go up on the little stats thing, even if this is just a little self project to see if I can actually handle a multi-chapter fiction (& so far it has worked, touch wood). So yeah, I could never really thank you enough. When I started this 134 pages ago on Word I'd never think I get people actually interested in it!

~Thank you!~


	10. Chapter 10: Getting to Grips

**_- CHAPTER 10: Getting to Grips -_**

The team had moved outside once the sun had begun to descend the sky, taking their beers and rations out with them earlier on while Dante was getting use to the equipment Alex had told him he was to wear while working with them. Grenades, a bullet proof vest (which Dante decided immediately that he wasn't going to wear), more ammo than Dante's ever had at any point in his life and a communicator system with a single microphone and handset that was supposed to sit at his hip. The Russian gave him a "break it pay for it" warning before giving him a run down on how to use the gear. Dante knew about the grenades but the communicator was a little tricky. Finished the Russian went out to join the rest of the team where Dante stayed behind take off his gear and set it beside the sleeping bag he'd been given for the night.

He sent a text to Kat once he'd finished packing up, grabbed a beer from the broken fridge in the kitchen before exiting the house. Dante pushed the front door open, leading out into cool evening air. The wooden pier at the far end of the dirt slope lead out into the lake, ending at a broken raft attached with heavy rope. A pickup truck to Dante left had been unlocked, lights turned on on its lowest setting with the entirety of Cat-6 sat around the front of it – either on deck chairs or on the hood. They chatted in lively and semi-drunk tones with the smooth hum of jazz from the old radio at Carters feet.

Dante moved over to join them, leaving his jacket and weapons back inside. He stepped up behind Dom, giving the guy a nod in greeting when he looked up, the others ignored him.

"I'm telling you, the M4A1 is the best there is." Jason lifted up his gun, the same one from earlier, "You can't go wrong with it, low recoil, suppressor, grenade attachment. Just add an reflex sight and she's deadly."

Dom shifted his fold out chair across and motioned to the spare just behind him, Dante grabbed it, opening it out before sitting next to the young man.

"But the problem is that you have to shoot a lot of bullets to be able to do any considerable damage to someone." Carter raised a hand in admittance. "I use the M4A1 of course but it's got a real low damage output unless you shoot someone in the head. In retrospect the STG-44 is better. Similar recoil, iron sight comes as standard issue and on close to midrange she can shoot to kill in one bullet."

Jason looked over at the unofficial CO with an unamused look, leaning in his seat and cocking back his gun.

"I don't understand why you fight over the superiority of such useless weaponry." Alex was sat on top the trucks hood, a shorter male that Dante had never seen before next to him. "If you are aiming to complete a mission with little problem and many deaths, we have the AN-94 as standard to all elite military soldiers in Russian army." Alex's accent was thicker under the influence of alcohol, he looked smug as he spoke covering it with his flask of Jack Daniels. "Recoil does not affect you until all the bullets have left the barrel; even then it is very little. It has longer range than your American guns and is more accurate than standard AK-74M. It is an effective weapon."

"But incredibly expensive too, they're not replacing the AK-74 with your 94 like they were going to do anymore." Said Carter.

"No, but cost doesn't mean anything when you are using the gun." Replied Alex.

"Hey, you Russians are a whole other race compared to the rest of the world so I ain't gonna argue. But the M4A1 is definitely the best." Said Jason.

Dante leaned over to Dom.

"This conversation come up often?" he asked.

Dom smiled folding his legs and leaning back to the Nephilim to answer.

"Get them even the slightest bit drunk and they start like a bunch of kids over whose got the best equipment." He took a drink of his beer, bringing it away and motioning over to the new male next to Alex. "That's JD. Russian army, although he's actually Hungarian or something."

Dante nodded, glancing over to the guy. He was wearing a bullet vest on top of a dark hoodie, cartridges for an assault rifle and a handgun strapped around his upper leg. He looked ready to go on the mission while the others were wearing rough clothes, their gear all set out and ready to go in the spare room back in the house.

"Kay." Dante lead back, watching in mild interest as Carter, Jason and Alex moved their conversation on to aircraft. Carter standing strong by his own F-16 Fighting Falcon when he was a pilot, while Jason and Alex argued over whether America or the Ex-USSR had the better aircraft overall. As Dante watched biting words bite between them, tension seemed to rise, he glanced over at Dom expecting the calm young military man to look ready to break a fight. Dom however was watching the argument like it was classic prime time TV with a shine to his eyes and a smile that was threatening to break into laughter.

Dante didn't understand it at all.

Cat- 6 slowly moved onto the topic of the mission near the later hours of the night. Where they then questioned Dante on demons and Limbo city, he was surprised to know that they knew that he was part of The Order and they questioned him as such. From what Dante gathered they had only recently come into contact with demons themselves, Dom explained lightly that a mission of theirs went FUBAR when a demon decided to appear and eat the target they were escorting, and they seemed to appreciate the information that Dante gave them. Jason and Carter mentioning for a change of equipment to be done.

Carter soon enough kicked them all back inside with the entirety of the team moving in to sleep, Dante watched as Alex and Jason retreated into Jason brain room for a few moments before returning to tell Carter that they didn't have enough incendiary grenades to equip the full team.

As Dante settled into his sleeping bag he heard Alex mutter something to JD in Russian before lights out.

* * *

"Hey,"

Dante shifted away from the poking fingers at his side, arm weakly reaching out to slap them away.

"Haha, hey. Carter said to wake you up." The same voice accompanied by the same fingers.

Dante growled and swung his arm out harder, a hand caught his own in a tight grip.

"Dante." Dom's voice loud and clear snapped through Dante's hazy mind. "it's 0634. Up. Now."

_6:34? What the hell? _

Dante opened bleary eyes to see Dom and JD looking down at him. Light from the early morning sun seeping in through the window, Dante could hear a engine start up outside and the sound of movement in the house.

"Come on." Dom smiled, twisting his grip to be able to haul Dante to his feet, even though being considerably smaller than the Nephilim.

Dante staggered up, mind complaining about being awoke so early, body stiff – he blamed the hard floor.

"JD, go help Jason move his stuff into the car, once were done we'll probably have to leave before officials arrive."

Dom turned back to Dante, who was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"You get used to it. Come on, grab your stuff and we'll head out." Dom took hold of Dante's hand and thrust a water bottle into it. "Toilets just past the kitchen, food on the side, get set up and drink the entirety of this before you come out of the house got it?"

Dante nodded, only taking in half the information, hearing Dom walk out of the room he was sorely tempted to just go back to sleep.

He slowly worked through the list of things Dom had given him to do, drinking only half the bottle before he stepped out jacket and ammo belt in his other hand. As he stepped out he realised how cold it was, dropping the bottle to quickly swing on his jacket, he scanned the area, seeing Jason and JD loading Jason's computers into a black SUV to the far right. The lake was quiet, the pier and it's raft completely silent.

"You alright?"

Dante looked down the stairs to see Carter, geared up and ready to go. Military gear with a visible bullet vest and his M4A1 hanging on a leather strap behind him.

"Yeah," Dante looked down at the belt, "When are we leaving?"

"As soon as your geared up and Jason's stuff is in his car." He nodded over to the black SUV. "You can sit yourself in the back of the truck when your ready. " Carter smiled and then took the stairs up to head inside.

Dante walked down, hearing Jason shout at JD over the value of his gear, he turned to the grey truck, hauling himself up into the open back next to a duffel bag. Peeking inside he could see two guns inside.

"You shouldn't go looking through someone else's things."

Dante snapped his head up to see Alex walking up along the side of the truck glaring at him. Dante pulled his hands back watching as the Russian chucked another bag into the truck. Dom jumped into the back settling himself just to the right of Dante, he, like Carter, was dressed in military gear with a hoodie underneath. A desert eagle handgun and a M4A1 loaded and holstered. He gave Dante a smile in greeting.

"Sleep well?" he asked.

"The floor killed my back," said Dante leaning forward and bringing his knees up.

"Yeah, you get used to it after a while, even in the army they don't cushion you up."

"I read that you were in the UK Air force." Said Dante.

"Yeah, I was part of Comms and Info when I first started out, but when they moved me to the warfront I put myself forward as part of the UN army." Dom rested his assault rifle on his lap. "Put me right in there, fighting terrorists and the like."

"Why'd you leave?" Dante remembered reading Dom's file, it said that his squad had been charged with human rights violations.

"Didn't leave, had to, my team got themselves into bad water they liked to take advantage of the locals and killed them so they couldn't tell anyone – saying that they resisted their commands and tried to fight them. I didn't know, always was up in the trees or scouting the area while they did it. I should've known though, but when you're out in an unknown hostile territory what your team is doing against human rights isn't the first thing to be thinking of. Anyway," he shifted as JD and Alex settled themselves into the truck across from him. "There was a court order against the entire team, an international problem that blew up in the media. Thankfully my CO's back in RAF managed to bail me out of it. I had nothing to do with it and there was no evidence on me to say that I did - even though my team tried to lob me in with them."

"Rough." Said Dante.

Dom shrugged "It's fine, once that was settled I was called back into the RAF, worked alongside the army for a bit before I met these guys."

"Azerbaijan." Said Alex he looked down at his gun, holding it tighter.

"Yeah. That's pretty much how I joined CAT-6." Said Dom a grim look on his face.

"What happened?" asked Dante.

"CAT-6 was section of SPETSNAZ." Said Alex. "Not mercenary group like now. We moved in on Azerbaijan, ordered to take out American troops hold on base then save the innocents they were assaulting. It didn't work."

"What happened?"

"Demons." Said Dom. "They came literally out of nowhere. Wiped out the base Carter and I were at and then attacked the SPETSNAZ troops when they rushed in."

_Shit._

"CAT-6 was no longer part of SPETSNAZ after this, I joined Alex there and then, Carter took a little while longer but he joined too." Said Dom. Dante heard Jason and Carter pile into the drivers and passengers seat of the truck behind him, Carter turning the ignition. "Then it was JD in '09 and Jason just last year. And now you." The vehicle was put into drive, turning down a track around the house and onto a dirt road.

_Wait._

"I'm part of your boy scout groups now?" asked Dante.

Dom laughed. "Well, if you live through this then kinda yeah."

"We made bets on whether or not you'll live through this mission." said Alex.

"What are my odds then?"

"Well everyone thinks you're gonna die except me" admitted Dom.

_That's comforting_.

* * *

The drive was long, long enough that Dante fell asleep on a few occasions. He was woken up by Dom, who would kick him with a booted foot on the leg and every time Dante would glare at him the British soldier would smile, looking away as if he didn't know any better.

Jason and Carter seemed to be deep in discussion at the front while Alex and JD would speak in Russian, to Dante it just sounded like a bunch of drunken words that he would never in his right mind want to learn about.

They drove deeper and deeper into the park, thickening woods standing for miles across on either side of the road they drove along. Silence stilled the morning air, the sun hiding behind dark grey clouds. The air heavy with water and as Dante looked up at the sky he sighed as it looked to be threatening to rain.

Carter slowed as they turned off the road and headed down into a valley.

"Almost there." Muttered Alex.

And they were, Carter stopped them five minutes later, right in front of a rangers house. A wooden single storey with boxes and equipment set up around it all set in an open clearing, abandoned eight man tents stood around the truck, a quick scan of the area detailed that people had left in a hurry. Cat-6 suddenly moved, grabbing guns and jumping out of the car in pure silence. Dom raised his assault rifle and motioned for Dante to follow him. As Dante climbed over the side, hitting the ground with less restraint than the others, he watched as Carter stepped ahead of the truck. He motioned with two fingers to the group pointing in compass directions around them. The team nodded, turned off their safety's and moved out, Dom tapped Dante's shoulder and gestured for him to follow him towards one of the tents. Dante pulled out Ebony and Ivory from behind him and followed the British soldier.

The rest of the team had divided into twos, Jason and Carter and Alex and JD. They too checked the other tents.

Dom walked ahead, the tents front already unzipped, he moved it open with the front of his gun stepping inside. Dante followed watching as Dom moved into the other rooms at the back of the tent. Around him was the remnants of people living there, cooking utensils and food half eaten and left to rot. Dante moved away and looked up as Dom as stepped back through.

"Anything?" asked Dante.

Dom shook his head, face full of confusion.

"We got told that they moved out without any problems. But this looks like they left in a hurry."

"Wrong intel?"

"Not on Jasons side, he doesn't get things wrong. Lukas possibly?"

He turned on his microphone.

"This is Ghost, we are clear here. Over."

"Copy Ghost, meet at Hotel. Out." Came Carter voice down the line.

Dom motioned for Dante to exit the tent, the two stepped out glancing over to see JD and Alex step out of two separate tents and regroup, the four of them made their way up to the Rangers house, where Jason and Carter stood on either side of the door, against the wood.

Unlike the rest of CAT-6 who wore military gear from their previous postings Jason wore navy field slacks and boots, obviously taken from a military group unknown to everyone else. His leather jacket covered his Desert Eagle, held just behind him on a leather holster, and in his hands he held his precious M4A1. He saw Dante and Dom and motioned for them to stand in front of the door. Alex and JD stayed on the bottom of the stairs leading up to the house. He nodded over to Carter who suddenly stepped away from the wall and kicked at the door, breaking it open and stormed though with Jason hot on his heels. Dom followed behind stepping past Jason and up towards a door at the end of the room.

Dante watched as the three worked their way through the whole place, Alex and JD coming up behind him.

"Clear!" shouted Dom from the back of the home.

"Clear." Said Jason walking back in, Carter nodded at the man.

"Definitely cleared out in a hurry." Carter motioned to the radio pumping out static.

"Perhaps our information is wrong." Said Alex, he looked over to Jason. "Perhaps you are incapable of preparing us for missions."

"You say something Commie?" Jason turned on the Russian, who was coming up to Dante's left. He saw Alex smirk slightly at Jason's reaction.

"You heard me, you _pindos_."

Faster than Dante had ever seen a human move, Jason pulled out his Desert Eagle, turned off the safety and was feet away from the Russian, finger on the trigger barrel to Alex's head. "What was that?"

"Easy." Carter stepped forward to them, a commanding voice breaking the firm tension between the two. "That's enough testosterone for one day" Carter raised a hand over Jason chest stopping him. "Jason's intel has been solid ever since he joined, this is a lack of effective communication between the previous group and who we got it from."

"Lukas." Said Jason lowering his gun.

Carter dropped his arm. "We can't do anything about it now. Let's keep moving towards the site."

The team moved out, with Carter taking point, Jason and Alex right behind him with Dom, Dante and JD at the back. Dante walked with his guns lowered, watching as the team moved in a coherent unit around the house and down a slope into the thick trees, following on Jasons directions.

When the ground levelled out and the team spread out slightly, Alex and Dom taking either side of the team.

"First job huh?"

Dante looked over to JD, spotting Dom a few metres behind him looking up to the sky.

"No. I've done a few." Said Dante.

"You've killed demons before then?" asked JD.

"Yeah," _pretty much my whole life._

"How many?"

"A lot." Dante kept watch of the rest of Cat-6 making sure that he could still see them.

"What's the biggest one you've faced? A hunter demon? And Mundus doesn't count, he was human after all, well kinda, I mean a demon in a human form but still, he was human."

A part of Dante sighed in annoyance.

"JD, if you don't turn off your damn mic I'm gonna go back there and bash your head in." Jason warned.

"But I'm asking him valid questions!" said JD, into his microphone. "What if we run into demons that we've never met before but he has, we gotta know what to do against them."

"Then we do what we always do, blow the things up."

"What if that doesn't work?"

"Cut the chat." Ordered Carter.

Even with his microphone turned of JD continued his barrage of questions; Dante answered them as vague as possible debating on following up on Jason's threat himself or just waiting the guy to wear himself out. Around them the team worked their way to the excavation site, only stopping when JD managed to find an animal burrow to get his foot stuck in, the team back looked at the short Russian rolled their eyes and continued on, Dante hesitated, wondering whether to pull him out or not.

"Keep it moving Dante." Carter voice rang in his ear.

Dante assumed that this was a common occurrence by the sound of their unison affirmation that JD will "sort himself out."

Dante had expected the site to be open land, void of anything higher than a few feet, but when Carter raised a fisted hand, calling the group into a halt, Dante saw their destination. A single ruined church, its grey stone losing in battle as nature grew over it, ivy, thick and unruly wound its way around the remnants of the church walls and columns. Mosses filled in the gaps, leaving only a few area of untouched rock. The spire of the church stood strong, ivy crawling up its walls in an attempt to reach its tip.

"Alright, gather round everyone." Carter called out to them, waving a hand towards him.

Cat-6 formed a semi-circle around the American, Jason pulled out a computer tablet from his inside jacket pocket turning it on.

"Alright, Jason gives us the rest of the detail." Ordered Carter.

Jason stepped forward. "Okay." He ran his fingers over the tablet, reading off the reports and information from it. "Church behind us is the first building they found, there's about six others like this further west of our current position, but the science geeks seemed to be concentrating on this on most. We've got an open pathway down into what we suspect to be prison cells underground back when this place was first used, beneath that seems to be some man made tunnels reaching down about a quarter of a mile before we hit the ."

"This underground city you mean." Asked Alex.

"Yes, of course I mean the city," Jason glared up at the Russian chewing on his bottom lip to prevent him from spewing out a line of insults to him. Carter coughed to pull the attention back to the task at hand. "Right… It's definitely a huge cavern by definition, and definitely got some sort of infrastructure to it, cutting right through the geological rocks and straight into what looks like subterranean lakes. But looking at it now I can't be too sure. Regardless, we need to find out what happened to the teams and pick up the info for Roman Enterprises, and preferably clean out anything that comes and tries to kill us."

"Simple, is there a destination?" asked Carter.

"Yeah." He moved over to the American, dragging his fingers over the tablet. "I was thinking we head to the main site, pretty much where Lukas's last merc team went dark. Just here in this domed room." Jason pointed on the tablet, Carter nodded and the two separated.

"Any questions?" asked Carter.

JD raised a hand. "If we find anything of use can we take it?"

"If you're asking if we can steal anything from the site the answer is the same as normal." Answered Carter.

"What about if we find any survivors?" asked Dom.

"Survivors are unlikely, but if we find any then their protection becomes a priority."

"How far down is this central chamber, anything we need to worry about the area?" asked Alex, moving up next to Dante assault rifle lowered Carter looked to Jason to answer.

"A couple of miles down at most." Jason flicked through his tablet. "Limestone and chalk geology, so that means large open spaces with a lot of cover spots, water runs through the entire thing so expect it to get a little cold in places, but other than that we're good."

The team fell silent, calculating the information. Dante glanced around the team, Jason working on his tablet, Alex looking uneasy, finger puching down on the trigger for his gun, thankfully it was locked, Dom was looking ahead, ready for orders, JD looking around as expecting someone to break the silence.

"How much are we getting paid for this?" asked Dante.

Carter smiled at his question, shifting as he pulled off the leather strip hold his assault rifle.

"In total we're getting 1.5 million for this job."

Dante's jaw dropped. _1.5 million, that can't be right,_ _well divide it by the 6 of us and that's... still fucking huge._

"That accounts to each of us getting quarter of a million each." Said Dom, giving him a smile. "Glad you joined us yet?"

"Hell yeah."

Carter laughed at him, holding his smile even as he began talking again.

"Alright, we move in two teams, and meet at the main chamber. There's a second entrance further along in that direction." Carter pointed west ward "First team will take that second entrance and the second team will take the entrance here. Team are this: Alex, JD and I will be one team. Jason, Dom and Dante you're team two." Dom and Jason air high fived each other obviously pleased that they were working together, Dante rolled his eyes but couldn't help but smile. Carter continued. "Alpha and Beta, pick leaders when we move out - radio contact occurs between them only unless something happens. Everyone run on their codename from here on out when talking okay?" the team nodded, "Dante, try and remember these." Carter went around the group pointing at each of the members. Alex. "Ottoman" Jason. "M" Himself. "Soldier" Dom. "Ghost" and JD "JD. And you are 'Gemini'."

_Gemini?_ Dante was a little confused, did they know that he was a twin? They couldn't know, otherwise they would've asked or mentioned it earlier.

Dante looked up at Carter, Soldier, to see if he could sense something from the man, anything that would show beneath that calm exterior that Carter knew about Dante. But there was nothing, not even a flinch or flicker. Dante was tempted to let it go, maybe it was coincidence?

"Let's move out gentlemen, we meet at the main chamber." Carter pulled off his safety with a smile.

* * *

_REVIEW REPLIES._

_AHassassin – I am on the fence in bringing Vergil in, mostly because of what happens in Vergil's Downfall and I my opinion I think that if he worked with Dante he'll want to kill him/seriously maim him first and foremost. :/ If I do, it'll be an interaction with Zane, or one of Vergil's demons will be in the story to… I've just had an idea… okay, right, ermm. A chance of Vergil appearing has just increased BUT it all varies on how these chapters go, if he does make an appearance it'll be after CAT-6 and Dante have worked this job._

_Guest (WHO ARE YOU?) – I loved Kablooey, I found that if you used it against the Dreamrunner & the Drekavac's you can use it to interrupt them the same way you would do with Arbitor. Now the only problem with the kablooey is that in the real world it's a different gun to what it was in Limbo. Remember when Vergil gave it to Dante when they were working their way up Mundus's tower and Vergil said "I took it off a security guard, might look like a tazer in the real world but is a powerful weapon in Limbo." So IMO unlike Revenant and Ebony & Ivory the properties of Kablooey change depending on what world Dante is in, and so far, with Dante being in Limbo for very little, he's had no real need to use Kablooey over the other guns. But don't worry, if I can remember properly I had yet to use any of the demon & angel weapons except for rebellion prior & hopefully I'll be able to amend that in oncoming chapters. It is my plan for Dante to fully utilise his arsenal of weapons with this job. :)_

Sorry for the late update, and for the short chapter. I've been distracted with work and playing Fable 3 (it's free on XBOXLIVE if you didn't know), finished it so now working my way through the Witcher 2. Iorveth is a sexy mofo, a part of me dies in how attractive he is everytime I see/hear him.

Tried for more Dante in this one, succeeded in a lesser style than I originally planned, I just need to play DMC again to get back into his character. Moving between my Shepards, my Hero and Geralt for the past few weeks has really knocked Dante's character out of me slightly so hopefully i can get back on track with that for the next chapter.

Thanks for reading regardless, hope you are all doing well and thoughts on CAT-6 would be appreciated.

EDIT: minor edit in chapter 3, basically Vergil's age changed from when I've got him setting up the Order. Nothing too big. Also in the middle of a chapter 10.5 that I won't be putting up here. Instead, if you're interested in reading it it'll be under the "Destination DMC" tag in tumblr, OR, go into the blog and find it there.


	11. Chapter 11: Old Faces

_**- CHAPTER 11: Old Faces -**_

Dante was first to drop down into the prison cell, up top they'd looked around for the entrance which was basically a blown up hole in the ground. He quickly scanned the small cell, and then stepped out of it into the corridor to see if anything was there, amidst darkness Dante couldn't see anything that could be perceived a threat.

_Clear._

"We're good here." He called out.

He returned to the cell to watch Dom and Jason jump down, both men giving him a smile when they hit the ground.

"Where to M?" asked Dom, pulling his mic up so he didn't accidentally contact the other team, Dante did the same.

Jason, M, pulled out his tablet, the light from it shining into his face. "Just follow the dungeon as if we were going down." He said, turning it to standby and slipping it back into its pocket. He raised his pistol and moved past Dante, taking point as appointed leader of the group. He checked outside as Dante did before, pulled out his flashlight, holding it in his right hand, and then nodded the all clear before moving. Dom followed next, assault rifle up, clicking on his attached light.

Jason and Dom walked a few feet in front of Dante, giving each other enough space to turn around and not hit each other with their weapons. Dante simply copied what Dom did; keeping Ivory and Ebony in both hands ready, but not held up. As they walked Dante found himself watching the other two - it was to be expected of course, he had to make sure that they didn't slow down for him to walk into or stop completely when they spotted something. When you worked alone it was easy enough, you watched your own back and dealt with things yourself, but working in a team, as Dom had put it when Cat-6 split up, was different. Dante was going to not only watch his back but Jason's and Dom's - thankfully this worked both ways.

Jason turned them down a corner into another corridor and like before the walls were bricked granite, thick and large. Stale air blew through from behind them at a slow and steady rate, only upturning the smell of something rotting. When it hit Dante's senses he stopped slightly,

Dante looked around at the faces of the other two when he smelt, something akin to dead bodies, but they didn't seem to have noticed it. He took it as a point to his better senses and chose to make no mention of it – Cat-6 had made no mention to him that they knew he was Nephilim, and he hadn't either, best to keep it that way he thought.

Jason lead them quietly thorough the tunnels, passing old empty cells. Dom pointed his gun's flashlight to look inside as they passed, his face turned as he would see torture devices, untouched for centuries standing there in the cells waiting to be used. Dante looked across at one, a thick wooden frame with what looked to be a metal corkscrew going through its top with an upside down bowl. It looked oddly like someone's head could be put there and the corkscrew…

Oh.

_ouch_

Jason took them to a flight of steps, where the slowly made their way down. If the dungeons were dark, this was worse, even with Dante's better sight and the light they had he found himself catching his feet at the end of steps, slipping down on to the next one to stop him from falling. Dom and Jason had a hand on the wall, torches facing the ground at their feet.

The smell of death became more pungent as they descended and had Dante not been concentrating on not falling onto his ass he'd have noticed the smell of something familiar.

Demons.

It wasn't even half way down the stairs when the world around Dante turned orange as if his eyes suddenly turned sepia tone. Cracks formed in the walls as if they were to break at any minute, and as Dante rolled his eyes, mind thinking that some God really hated him to do this to him again, the air around Dante suddenly broke, the stench of Limbo wafted over him. His attention was broken to the ceiling where a demonic light shined above him. It ran down the ceiling of the tunnel right down to the bottom, where, when he looked down the rest of the stair case Dante could feel the presence of a demon.

"Oh, for fucks sake…" He rolled his eyes, and groaned loudly; noticing Dom and Jason now only silver outlines.

"Hey, Dom! Jason…" he moved down the stairs with them, now able to see where he was going thanks to the demon light above him, he tried waving in Dom's face watching as his hand passed through the British Soldier nose. "Fuck. Hey! Can you hear me?

"Where's Dan- Gemini?" asked Dom, looking down to Jason in the darkness.

"Right next to you." Answered Jason.

"No he's not." Dom raised his light into Dante's face, it didn't affect the Nephilim and he knew now Dom couldn't see him, even if he was technically looking right at him.

"What-?" Jason stopped and turned around. Looking at where Dom was shining his light. "What the hell? Where did he go?"

"I don't know, he was right here two seconds ago."

Dom pulled down his microphone, turning it on. "Da- Gemini. Can you hear me?"

"Ghost, what's wrong?" asked Carter

Dante heard both of their voices come through his headset. He hurried to pull it down and turn the device on, holding the mic close to his mouth he briefly hoped that luck was on his side.

"Dom- Ghost, fuck it, it's me, I'm here." He quickly said, over Jason telling Carter that they had "lost sight of Gemini"

"Where the hell are you?" Asked Dom looking back up the stairs.

"I'm right in front of you, your pointing you torch right at me."

Jason and Dom's faces dropped, with an added raising of the eyebrow from Jason. Dom dropped his torch slightly.

"I'm not kidding you, I've been pulled into Limbo." Said Dante.

"Limbo?" asked Jason.

"It's the demon world, kind of." _What had Zane once put it?_ "Like a purgatory for demons, they live in our world but it's not our world."

"Like a mirror world?" asked Dom.

"Yeah."

Jason held his confused face and Dom just looked exasperated and suddenly stressed out.

"Look, I can still see you guys and I can sort of hear you but you can't see me, and the only way I can get out is by killing the demon that pulled me in here." Said Dante.

"There are demons down here?" asked Jason, "Fuck."

Dom looked like he was suffering from a bad headache, Dante felt sorry for him.

"Well Gemini." Carter's voice was clear through the headset, "keep moving with team Beta, and try and figure out what demon has done this to you."

Dante nodded, suddenly remembering that Carter couldn't see him "Got it."

"Keep in contact M. Ghost, Gemini switch to short range."

"Yes sir." Confirmed Jason and Dom, the latter reaching behind him to flick one of the switches on the comm device - Dante did the same.

"Soldier out."

Jason looked up at where he suspected Dante was standing, and his guess was right, flicking him to short range as well. "Let's keep going then."

And they did, dropping another 30 feet into the darkness before the stairs stopped and the ground levelled out.

To Dom and Jason it was still pitch black, but the lack of walls on either side of them told them they had entered one of the rooms, Jason pulled out his tablet to double check pointing out the first room nearest the top of the ground floor.

To Dante however, the light from the ceiling of the staircase down had now split running along the entirety of the dome ceiling in a wave of random curved lines, some running down the side walls and into the ground, interlinking, but they all ran to the other side of the room, towards an iron door on the far end.

"Dante, see anything?" asked Jason.

"Yeah. I've got a lot of weird lines running into a door on the other side, just look forward."

He watched as Jason raised his torch, pointing at the door.

"All I'm seeing is a wall Dante."

_Huh?_

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"Maybe it's something that can only be seen from Limbo," piped Dom, looking at the same spot as Jason. "try and see if you can open it Dante, we'll look around here for a way out."

Dom and Jason stepped away, Dante watching them head to his right and found themselves almost hitting the wall, they then began searching for something, pressing hands on the stone brick.

Dante walked up to the door, iron looking at it but almost with a rusted tint to it, he then noticed a small square block to the doors left side with a spherical shape at its flat top, the lines on the ceiling ran all the way down into this shape.

_What the hell?_

Dante turned away from it, looking up at the door, it stood a few feet higher than him and looking at it a few times over didn't have any sort of handle on it. Dante raised his hands and pushed against the iron, it didn't move an inch. An expected outcome he thought.

Summoning Rebellion, he pulled her out, and stepped back.

"Maybe a bit of Rebellion will help."

He raised the blade and stepped forward to bring it down on the door, he should be able to cut through the metal and-

"Yoo hoo!" a, what Dante would say, male, high pitched voice called out from behind him, something blew over Dante's shoulders, as if someone was there.

Dante stopped, Rebellion poised in the air, just centimetres away from the door.

He turned to the sound of the voice, spotting only what he would describe as a mime, wearing dark purple rags and one of those jester hats you find in fairgrounds. The_ mime_ cocked its head to the side an unnaturally large grin baring teeth and shining eyes looking straight at Dante.

"No need to use violence Nephilim." it spoke with a sing song like voice, hand twirling what looked to be some sort of golden sceptre. Something about him made Dante on edge and he twisted his body to attack the mime instead. "Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!" it shouted out raising it hands in mocking to try and protect itself, fingers moved in a melodic way before the mime lowered its hands, that smile still present on its face. "Better listen to what others say _boy_." Dante watched as within blinking the mime was in front of him then suddenly behind him, looking towards the door, sceptre outstretched towards it. "This door here is very sturdy." It hit it with his sceptre, the metallic sound ringing through the room. "You see? You have to figure out a way to get through it if you want to save your little human friends." Dante saw the mime glance over to where Jason and Dom were - still working their way around the rooms walls on the other side.

"And how do I do that?" asked Dante, lowering Rebellion, tightening his grip. "And I want none of your tricks demon, I'm not in the mood." Last time he was made to play with a demon was when he fought Lilith in her club. That was a hell of a lot more work than Dante expected. It pissed him off even more when he'd remember the torture Mundus was putting Kat through while he had to play through Lilith's stupid games.

"Let me introduce myself first." The mime stepped away, bowing low to the ground. "My name, is Jester. And I know a little thing or two about this place." Dante watched Jester straighten up, twirling the sceptre like it was a baton. "That thing there-" it pointed towards the block by the door walking towards it but facing Dante. "-is the power generator that keeps this place ticking. Your little human friends cut the power on their last visit so now everything is broken."

_The science team? What the hell is going on?_

"In order to open the door" continued Jester. "You have to apply a little something to it first. I think something… powerful, would hit just the right spot, wouldn't you agree?"

_What the hell is this thing on about? _

Dante pulled out Ebony pointing it at Jester, the demon gasped, hand covering its mouth, in mocking fear, before it broke into a loud cackle.

Dante shot him in the head.

And once more, Jester moved faster than he'd realised, to the other side of the power generator, the bullet having engraved a hole in the wall.

"hahahaha! Actually I prefer a sword to be my partner. May I have this dance m'lady?" Jester bowed again and Dante couldn't help but giving him what he wanted, Rebellion was raised and brought down on Jester. Again, to Dante's anger, the creepy demon dodged it again, even as Dante cursed as he heard the demon cackle behind him his sword didn't stop. As Rebellion came down it formed into Arbiter, slicing down onto to the sphere on the power generator. The energy flowing inside it stopped, and Dante felt energy running out of his weapon into the generator. Arbiter shook violently in his hand and he quickly brought it away, only to have the door open.

"BINGO!" Jester was now at the top of the room, standing upside down on the ceiling , Dante put Rebellion onto his back, keeping her there just in case, he brought out Ebony once more. Watching as Jester danced on his feet, twirling that sceptre again "That is what the something is! Remember it boy, write it down on your hand if you don't trust your head."

Dante shot at the demon again, it laughed and danced away from it, laughing again when Dante shot once more.

Hand reaching round to grab hold of Ivory, Dante pulled on Ebony's trigger again and again firing bullets right into Jester's face, each time he dodged them disappearing through the door leading up to the stairs. Dante heard his laugh even after the demon left.

"Fucking demons" he said, putting both guns away.

"You alright Dante?" asked Dom.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Well whatever you did" Dom and Jason were now walking towards his, torches up to the now opened door. "We can see the door now."

Dante watched as they walked through, coming to the conclusion that there may be more to this place than originally imagined, if that annoying as fuck demon wasn't enough, seems Dante was going to have to help get them through this place.

He wondered how Carter and the others were getting through.

* * *

They moved through the tunnels. Dante keeping himself on edge in case another demon or Jester popped up again. Next time that that clown did he'll have to ask him what demon pulled him into Limbo.

As he walked, he watched Dom and Jason talk to each other. Without their mics turned on Dante could only hear parts of their conversation. It was weird, with Kat he could hear her clearly, as if there wasn't the whole Limbo barrier in between them, but with these two it was like someone had put a bowl over his ears and all he could hear was broken echoes of their voices.

Seemed they got on well together, they weren't laughing or joking around but pleasantly conversing with one another, talking about things that Dante didn't understand, seemingly outside of CAT-6 the two knew each other quite well.

_Unlike Alex and Jason that is_

Dante pulled down his mic. "Hey M."

"Yeah?" Jason pulled his mic down looking over his shoulder over to Dom's left, where he suspected Dante would be, pretty spot on to be honest.

"What was that between you and Ottoman back there? Back in the house I mean."

"…"

"Don't worry about it Gemini" said Dom, a he smiled, "Ottoman and M kinda have always got this weird tension between them, Soldier's convinced that it's because back before CAT-6 M used to piss the fuck out of the SPENATZ, ruin their missions, give wrong intel, that sort of thing."

"Why?"

"Coz he used to hate the Russian military. M's grandfather fought in the Korean War and his father in Nam. And you know who American blamed the wars on?"

"Errm…No."

"Russia. Both wars were set in the Cold War, never learn about it at school?"

"Didn't really go to school."

"Well, basically it's this stupid stalemate war that America and Russia had over nuclear weapons. And because there was no actual conflict between the countries, it was called a Cold War. But anyway, the reason that M hated them so much was because of his family, and so he just grew up believing it."

_Explained why Alex and Jason seemed to kick off so quickly beforehand._

"If you hate Russia why'd you work with CAT-6 then?" Dante asked.

"Because, I don't judge a man by the country he's born in, that's like me saying the fact that Ghost was born in England means that he's a posh, tea loving chav." Dom pulled a face. "There's bad blood between our past loyalties, Ottoman and myself, but we're CAT-6 now, and now we all work together." He quickly added. "Also Soldier had us locked up in a basement for four days with a fuck tonne of alcohol and junk food."

"All the bromance you guys had still doesn't stop you from calling him communist and trying to drink him under the table." Said Dom

"It's on my bucket list to see that guy absolutely wasted one day."

Dante couldn't help but chuckle.

* * *

**_Same time Cat-6 was working through Ferris Field's Mortuary & Churches_**

When Noah Nixon, not to be amusingly accused of being related to President Nixon please, received his Intel for his next mission while flying the BA223 flight to New York he didn't expect to be so…

_Left in the dark._

It wasn't the first time, the last being when he was thrown down in Shanghai with only the clothes on his back, a RN assault rifle and only enough money to afford the motel for the 4 weeks he was there. He made sure that Huntington knew exactly what he thought of his superiors after that.

But that was then, back when he first started working for the agency, he had to expect some cock ups. But now, after working for them for over twelve years he'd expect better, and much more than this.

He woke up in Manchester, UK, to Huntington calling him on his private work phone. He was to catch the 12:15 plane to New York and then divert across to Eastern Alderidge City and only then will he be briefed. "Maybe" she added with a hesitant shrug unsure herself.

Noah didn't like it, and when he voiced his concerns on why he was suddenly being brought back home Huntington couldn't give him anything more. She quietly mentioned that something happened in the main company building of Henry Roman Enterprises and suspected that it was something to do with that.

_Made sense, seeing as the company is run in Northern Alderidge City._

His vacation time had started a week ago and he'd only just managed to get settled into his sisters guest room in Manchester when he was told to come back. It left him uneasy and he couldn't help but wonder what the hell was going on.

An airhostess called out quietly over the sleeping woman next to him, asking is he was "requiring anything". He honestly wanted to ask for a way for the plane to finally reach New York but of course, that wasn't possible.

"No, I'm fine thanks." He waved a hand in dismissal and she obliged, walking off to bother the next person unable to sleep.

Between now and their landing Noah wasted the time coming up with theories on why the agency brought him back so soon.

* * *

He was glad that he was wrong.

Seems like they just wanted him to check out the Henry Roman Enterprises HQ, in Northern Alderidge. The government received reports that a "biological outbreak" occurred in one of the science labs and the company went into an immediate lockdown – containing everyone who was in the building at the time.

Supposedly it was a false alarm, but the agency wanted him to go in and have a look.

He was to report to the reception of the H.R. Enterprises building and he'd have one of the directors take him around. But Noah had another idea. One that didn't mean he'd have to sit though hours of following some suit and listening to his family woes and the national expenditure of the company for this fiscal year.

Noah had a better idea.

He told the driver to take him to the specialist hospital just off the Centre City Park. As he shifted back into the leather seat of the Jaguar car he sighed. He knew one person who would have been in the company building at the time of the supposed false outbreak and probably there at the focus of it all.

The car pulled into the hospital car park, Noah immediately climbed out and gave a quick thanks to his driver – thankfully the guy was also paid ahead to take Noah's bags to the hotel he was going to be spending some time in. As he made his way into the building, he noticed the five-man queue at the reception.

Noah wasn't in the mood to wait and as he walked, he pulled out his official badge and moved right to the front. He pushed up against the guy at the desk looking straight over to the young lad working behind it. Noah guessed he was just out of high school.

"I need to see a Dr Kurts, I believe that he works here." Noah held up his badge.

The kid looked over to the guy to Noah's left who was taking a moment to realise what Noah was doing before he began to argue.

"Excuse me, you can't just-"

"Floor 8, room 13." Said the lad passing him a visitors card. "He's with someone right now, I'll call up to say you're coming."

Noah thanked him and headed off to the elevator, smirking as the guy he pushed in front of spluttered profanities and commented on Noah's rudeness.

He hit the button for the 8th floor, listening to the less than wonderful instrumental version of "My Way"… Actually, it sounded more like a karaoke or midi version of the song than anything else.

Frank Sinatra would be turning in his grave.

He reached the 8th floor looking up to see a sign with all of the hospital doctors names on, arrows pointing towards their rooms. Dr Kurts was near the top and Noah took a sharp left down the hall.

He reached the room, number 13.– unlucky for some – the name plate bearing Dr Valdilan Kurts in black. Noah knocked lightly on the fake wood door.

"Enter."

Noah pulled down the handle and entered the room. The garish orange and grey walls hitting him first, then the metal furniture, the piano in the far corner of the office, the smell of antiseptic and finally the doctor himself. Sitting with a smug grin on his face. Noah was about to comment on the doctors open bottle of whiskey at his desk, when he noticed the second body in the room, at the piano, lifting up its lid ready to play.

"Valdilan. The lad downstairs said you had someone up here." Said Noah, watching the unknown man run thin fingers over the white keys.

Valdilan glanced over to the male, who also stopped to looking over his shoulder back at Noah.

"Ah yes, Tony, he's a good kid, smart, shame he can't fund his University degree. And that guy." He pointed over to the man at the piano. "He's an old friend. Now, Noah Nixon." Val leaned forward in his seat. "How may I help you?"

"I'm here to ask about the supposed biological outbreak you had a few weeks ago." Noah sat down at the only seat Valdilan had in front of his desk, pulling it round to face the doctor directly. Over in the corner he noticed the other male tap lightly on the keys. Surprisingly enough Noah hardly heard the notes that were played – he assumed it was the way the room was designed, or the open window between him and the piano.

"Ah yes. It was just a false alarm you know. A colleague of mine filed it when he realised that none of the seals on the experiments had actually been opened, I believe that we told your government of this."

"Yes, but they still want me to check it out."

"Take you off your vacation time Mr Nixon?" Val gave him his cocky smile, left eyebrow twitching upwards.

"It did, so I'd appreciate your co-operation."

"Well I can tell you the words that your government will want to hear you so you go home and type that all out. And then I could tell you what actually happened."

"How about you tell me what happened straight."

Valdilan looked over to his friend who was back to watching the exchange with a blank face, Noah didn't recognise the man, he had known Val since his years in the agency and had never seen this man from then till now, until today..

"Very well Noah." Val looked back at him, drawing Noah's attention to him once more. "Simply put it – it was a biological outbreak, of the demon kind."

Alarm bells rang in Noah's' head and he felt the hairs on his arms stand at the word.

"Demons?"

"Yes. Demonic creatures. Henry Roman Enterprises had taken and sedated all the way from Limbo City to here. They are currently housed in the sector 4 of the company's science buildings."

Noah must have looked a little taken back, for Valdilan laughed lightly and brought his hands away from his face, palms down on the desk. In the corner, light notes turned into a tune, familiar to Noah but he couldn't quite name it.

"Well, HR Enterprises heard about what happened in Limbo City, and thought it would be the most brilliant of ideas to… let's say.. _attempt_ to control these demons, or find a way to. I was hired due to my extensive knowledge in all things and I've been working on a way to get them what they want."

"Have you succeeded?"

"Of course not. Otherwise there wouldn't have been that 'outbreak', two demons got out and we were ordered to destroy them."

"A science facility isn't equipped with the capabilities of killing two demons."

"Oh I had a few bottles of pure ethanol fuel lying around and all I needed was a lighter from one of uthe dead security guards." Valdilan said with indifference.

Noah found himself looking sceptical at the doctor, who held his gaze back at him until Noah couldn't help but chuckle and look away.

"So you killed the demons, then what?"

"We continued as normal, had some of the boys from the morgue pick up the bodies and I worked with Doctor Hughes in an autopsy later on that day to see what had suddenly made it aggressive."

"and I assume beforehand they weren't?"

"I had ordered for them to be injected with enough sodium thiopental and pancuronium bromide to kill them three times over every day and even then the demons had to be restrained when we were working on them."

"The lethal injection drugs? Why them?"

Valdilan shrugged. "It's the USA, easy to get those sorts of drugs over here than in the EU."

"And now, that you've realised that your drugs won't work on all of them." Said Noah.

"It was only two of the fourteen we have, well had."

"_Had_?"

"I've borrowed 5 of them to use as test dummies. Reproduced and cloned human organs in them, see if I can create antidotes with their bodies, cure cancer - that sort of thing."

"And what has happened to those?"

"I've one in cryo and the others are currently burning in an incinerator to see how long they last in the heat before they die."

Noah, wasn't sure if the Doctor was insane, bored, or a genius sometimes.

"So, how did they get out, the demons I mean."

"Someone let them out."

"Who?"

"I have no idea." Val leaned back, face of thought. "We had the surveillance tapes checked and no one was near the lab prior to the outbreak."

"No one at all?"

"The only people on that floor were myself, Doctor Birkenhead and a few nurses working on the demons genome composition. But all of us can clearly be seen working in the labs on the other side of the floor."

"Could I get access to these surveillance tapes?"

Val shook his head. "Sorry Nixon. HR won't want you looking at them, you know how much the company hates you government types."

Noah sighed in muttering a "yeah". He knew about HR's hatred of the Government, it was something to do with their tax evasion and lacking of moral and employee policies [on a major scale, we're talking about people dying while at work and the company doesn't pay up complementation to the family or even admit it was their fault] – that's put them on a eternal black list.

"Anything else Mr Nixon? I promised to go out to dinner with my friend here." Valdilan motioned to the man over by the piano, who was deep within playing Broken Wings from the Trinity Blood anime (his sister had made him watch it, as in literally tied him to the couch and taped his eyes open). When Noah realised that he knew the track he decided he should leave. He pulled out his phone noticing four missed calls and 2 texts from Huntington.

Probably because he didn't attend the HR Enterprises Building like planned.

He smiled when he read the first text from her and looked back up to Valdilan.

"Well, I think that's all I need to know Dr Kurts-" said Noah moving to stand. "I'll probably end up emailing you for your personal account on the incident so if you could-"

"I'll write one for you and send it to your account when I get home, now I think you're supposed to be at the HR building right?"

"Yeah, they won't mind that I'm fashionably late, gives them more time to work on their cover story."

"Oh don't worry. I'm sure they've got a good one for you this time Mr Nixon." Said Valdilan.

Noah laughed, and took his leave waving a simple goodbye.

* * *

When Noah left, closing the door without pulling the handle down (that bugged Valdilan like no tomorrow), Valdilan swung his arms behind his head and leaned far back into his seat. Ignoring the sudden lurch and ache that shot through his head when he moved.

_Next time, remember that you're a light weight Kurts_

Regardless, he was sober enough to stand and walk around, food sounded good right now.

"You ready?" the doctor asked.

"Ready for what?" the male at the back kept playing, fingers dancing over the whites and blacks like it was second nature.

"Dinner of course, there's this wonderful Italian just in the city centre that you have to try."

"I thought that was part of your 'let's get agent boy out of here ASAP'."

"Well, yes, but now that I've mentioned that I am taking you to dinner I have to go through with it. What if I don't and he finds out? I won't be allowed to conduct my research anymore." He rested his head back and closed his eyes.

"The illegal research or the 'definitely completely legal within the confines of the labs' research?" asked the man, bringing the tune to a slow finish.

"Both." Valdilan answered, having to think about what his friend meant.

The man drew away from the piano, walking over to Valdilan, the doctor heard him lightly laugh and pick up the whisky bottle from the desk, finishing it off.

"Did you just drink it all?" asked the doctor.

"Yeah."

"That's not fair."

"Best part is I won't get drunk, me and my damn angel genes." Valdilan could literally see the amused smirk on his friends face.

"Your damn angel genes are what got those bloody demons out in the first place."

"I can't believe you actually put my blood in them."

"I wanted to see if they'd fly."

"You're mad Valdilan. Absolutely mad."

* * *

_REVIEW REPLIES_

_robstar-and-amuto-4-ever – Awww, thank you, it's nice to hear your thoughts & your english is perfectly legible. You like Cat-6? Great! I'm really getting into them to be honest, so yeah, they'll be popping in every now and then. I've also semi-planned this silly chapter I'm going to write featuring them, their sixth member, who has been mentioned before, and Dante. That's still in its design stages though. I may go into their back-stories if it works with the fic, maybe you'll get more on those that Dante gets on with rather than say, JD or Alex, but it all depends on what happens, as always._

Thanks for reading to all those who have stuck out with me this long. Hope you're well and if you can, just drop me a comment on ANYTHING, even if it's a consistency or spelling error.


	12. Chapter 12: Verde's Jazz

_**- Chapter 12: Verde's Jazz -**_

_SET BEFORE NOAH NIXON MET WITH DR V. KURTS.  
_

If anyone was to ask "What got you into this position now?" Val would simply reply the same thing as he did to the last person who asked.

"My greater intelligence and knowledge over the rest of my peers - and obviously yourself, seeing as you are currently working for a news reporting company that only requires you to have a basic understanding of the world and an above average facial features and body. This is probably the answer you are looking for, _what_ got me into that position was countless hours in the library during university and a lot of alcohol and caffeine."

It was rude, short sighted, and he was never normally as unprofessional as the times when he would have some woman from the Raptor New Network interrupt him during his working hours to discuss his work. But if people really wanted to know about his work, they'd read the work he published, simple as.

He would love to say that he found some sort of enjoyment out of outsmarting the reporters but when you have to dumb down your detailed and incredibly important research for the masses just so it can fill up 10 minutes of television, it broke his heart sometimes.

People just don't understand.

Thankfully, the Raptor News Cooperation is gone, along with Kyle Rider and the Virility Corp. Val abhorred that they used a synthetic syrup created from the excretion of humans being force fed the suppressive drug in large containers in the facility. It would have been far more efficient for Kyle Rider, AKA Mundus (yes Valdilan knew about that as well), to have him (Valdilan) kidnapped, and tortured, until he agreed to introduce a new vaccine for the general public against the "common cold" that would just block off the nerves running to and from the entirety of the prefrontal cortex of the brain. It would achieve the same results and, well be harder to take out.

But that's his loss now, well, of course it was, seeing as he's now dead.

Supposedly.

Val sat back at his office desk, looking up to make sure his door closed and glanced around the what some would say, obscene orange and white colours painted on the walls.

Orange was a very soothing colour actually in his personal opinion, and if anything, if he decided he didn't want to work anymore he could just stare at the wall and come up with hundreds of different colour combinations that would come across as a terrible to the average human eye.

He sighed, pleased to finally have a break from work, not that he actually wanted to but Kaya threatened to blackmail him if he didn't. It gave him time to just breathe, to not have to think about when the next patient with a broken bone is going to walk in demanding his help, or about the cure for cancer.

Oh no wait, he's already done that.

Actually no wait, let me rephrase that, he found a cure for a cancerous tumour found in the lungs of a 43 year old man who smoked - that didn't include the treatments that you current people are used to.

Val wanted to leave the man to die but the family had one of the most expensive insurance policies Val had ever seen, meaning that the hospital board wanted the doctor to effectively take as much money as they could from the guy. Running tests that didn't amount to anything related to the tumour and have him remain in the hospital for over 6 months.

Val wasn't all up for it, but in the end he had to. He wasn't going to get into a fight over it.

Anyway, he got to relax now. Calm down, chill, maybe pull out that bottle of Irish Whiskey Zane bought him for his birthday last year.

"Dr Kurts."

One of Kaya's interns opened his door peeking his head around it. Val didn't take his eyes off the orange walls, trying to look as agitated and as stressed as he could.

"Yes?"

"Someone is here to see you." Said the intern, a nervous smile as he opened the door wider to let the someone in.

Did Val say he could let anyone in?

As Val open his mouth to snap at the intern he stopped.

"Well, call me a miracle worker, Zane!"

Val shot out of his seat, one hand dismissing the intern without a second thought while the other went to embrace the angel.

Actually, a half angel.

"Hey Val." Zane returned the hug, laughing.

"Didn't think you'd be turning up." Val let go and moved away, making sure the door shut behind the angel.

"Yeah, well, after I managed to translate your poorly spoken Slavic. I thought I'd come by."

"Haha, yes well, it didn't help that I was watching a language tutorial while drunk before it all happened, but never mind that." He motioned to the chair in front of his desk, sitting down into his own one. "How have you been? How was Europe? Did'ya take any photots? oh you have got to tell me what happened over there. Did you meet anyone new? Shall we talk about your test results now or later?

"Val, too many questions breathe." Zane chuckled. He sat down, hands on the rests. "I don't mind, you're the doctor with the degree here."

"_Two_ PHD's to be exact." Val smiled.

"Yeah, I can never get my head around how you managed that."

"A lot of time well spent if you ask me." Val reached into his draw pulling out a pad of paper and a pen from his jacket pocket. He decided to run the health check by the half angel first, get the gloom and doom stuff out of the way so he could concentrate on the more important things. "Now," he kicked at his computer as it booted into life. "let's get the depressing stuff out of the way first. I took the liberty of running the tests myself, seeing as I couldn't have some intern in the labs downstairs figuring out that you're not exactly human, seeing as you strictly don't have blood cells like the rest of us." He shared a mutual grin with the angel before returning to his computer.

"Okay. Ah, here." He found the file he was looking for and opened it up, watching as the blue desktop flashed into a white document. "Right, we both know that your body is a mix of human and angel cells, human functions but your nervous system and brain is angel, allowing you to be able to affect your surrounding area with pheromones and well, energy basically." He watched as Zane nodded. "Well, the balance in your body, human and angel is becoming unstable, now we all know that an equilibrium never exists in the world but there always a movement between two statuses. In your case, before, there was an attempt at a balance, keeping your body alive, but now, from these results I have here your body is effectively…" how could he put it? "Destroying itself."

"How?" Val wasn't suprised when his friend looked unfased, both men knew, understood, what would have been the more likely outcome when Zane signed up under the Doctors care.

"We know that when an angel or a demon is met with something new they learn from it, store it and change depending on that information. Your nervous system is angel and as you learn and adapt to new things, fighting demons, becoming infected by diseases - that sort of thing, your system takes that information and stores it, and at the same time tries to change your body according to that information. But you're human, and human evolution is slow, progressive; mostly because we're so used to having our environment change over a period of years in the past, so it cannot keep up with your angel half. At the same time, your angel half is what is keeping the rest of you ticking, if that doesn't effectively dumb itself down it'll kill you."

"It's just one huge balancing act then?" said Zane.

"Pretty much yes. Quite remarkable really, but in the end it forces your brain to work double the amount it would do so normally. And so, a lot of chemical in balance will occur, thus the headaches, the catatonic pains, the nightmares. How are the drugs I gave you working?"

"They worked… for a time." Zane shifted, resting his weight onto a single armrest. "But it was just like the last one, absolutely no effect after 5 weeks."

"Damn, and I really thought I'd got it with this one.."

That meant back to the lab for him once Zane had left, he wasn't going to let his friends stubborn angel genetic structure beat him.

"It's alright Val. You work hard enough as it is no need to put in extra hours for my sake, especially if I'm just going to be dead soon anyway."

"What makes you say that?"

"I saw _her_ a few weeks ago."

"The hunter angel? The one Lukas warned you about?"

Zane nodded.

"Well, that's not good."

Zane rolled his eyes. "You're telling me. She's the one after my hide."

"I know."

Val knew that no matter how much he got himself involved with the whole angel demon thing he could never truly understand it. He couldn't even understand why angels were killing off half breeds like Zane. It's not like they did anything but exist, but, maybe that's it, they existed and so they had to die. Genocide to a race that barely exist as one.

"Well, that's pretty much it, I'll print off the results so you can look at them later but that's the overview." He hit print and turned on the print behind him. "Right, ignoring the whole doctor patient relationship we have here, I'm going to ask you this. I heard that you took a certain young Nephilim into your care. Tell me _everything_ about him."

"What? So you stick something in him if you ever meet him?" Zane gave him that look that '_I know what your scheming Valdilan and I don't want to know either'_

"Oh, Zane, you wound me. I'm not going to try anything."

"Uh huh."

"Well, maybe a probe or two."

* * *

_PRESENT TIME _

_I don't fucking like this._

Jason pulled out his tablet, elbowing his gun behind him as he unclipped the torch with his free hand, he held it above, shining down on the tech in his hands. He felt Dom near him, a questioning look hitting the side of his face, but Jason paid it no attention. He needed to figure out what the fuck was going on.

Everything they had been given was wrong, god damn fucking worng and it was pissing Jason off to no end. The maps the reports everything, well except the destination, tht was right, god he hoped so thinking about it.

He swiped his finger across the screen opening up the fake map they'd been given, he cursed and opened up the real blueprints of the area.

It was no longer a city, but on giant mess off tunnels and underground caverns that ad been transformed into one giant burial site.

They're walking right into the biggest body pit the world has ever seen.

A part of Jason should've known, their informant, Lukas, he _was_ a demon, Alex wasn't lying when he mentioned it earlier to Dante. Everyone knows that demons lie, they love to lie and cheat and destroy and for fucks sakes Jason think straight! Ignore that bastard of a man and figure out what the fuck is going on.

Jason groaned.

"Trouble?" Dom was always the calm one in CAT-6 and in all honesty, the best guy in the team. That's Jason personal opinion though, no need to go spreading it around to everyone else. Dom had this way about him though, he could placate him and Alex when they fought, tell them off even though he's the smallest guy out of the three of them. He'd give you this hard stare, daring you to try him and if he did, the fucker moved so fast that Jason has given up counting the number of times he's found himself on his back looking up at the British soldier.

But at the same time, thorugh all the ass kissing to the Captain and the silence he'd fall into when everyone was together, he watched their backs in the fire fight, he knew exactly what to do and when to do it, he was the first guy you could trust on the team, hell, he'd go out of his way to do anything for you, within good reason of course. When Jason felt him pull the tablet out of his hands, he didn't freak out and snatch it away like he would've done if it was JD, or Alex, even Carter, he gave the British soldier a small grimace and gestured him to look at the screen.

"Oh, so now we're walking into a giant demonic sacrifice place" said Dom. "Just peachy."

"I feel you, I'm gonna wring that bastard of an informants necks if get out."

"W_hen_ we get out" reiterated Dom.

Jason sighed, as soon as they'd passed though that first door it had closed up behind them, and the next and the following after that. It was as if something wanted them to go deeper, and not be able to get back out. Giant bells and neon arrows were just pointing all the way to the word "trap" in Jasons mind and if whatever the hell was down there was enough to kill off 4 mercenary groups and a whole science team and turn their bodies into those demonic human creatures... Jason didn't really want to think about it. Thankfully they weren't alone though. When Jason had checked in with Carter and the others they to were having a similar problem with the doors and the rest, well, minus one of their team members being stuck in Limbo.

"Hey Dante, you here?" asked Jason, headset already down to talk to the guy.

"Yeah I'm right next to you." Said Dante.

Jason glanced to the direction he assumed Dante was in, of course he couldn't hear him unless it was through the headset so it wasn't like he was expecting to be looking at Dante.

"Otherside."

Jason twisted and looked to his right, stepping back to give Dante enough space, he motioned to his tablet.

"Just got this sent by a friend of mine back in Alderidge City." Jason pointed to where they currently were on the map. "He says that we've been sent right into the bowels of hell, demons and crap all turn up right here whenever there's a distortion in Limbo."

"A distortion?"

"Like when Limbo opened up on Limbo City when you were there. Demons popped up right here, in this central chamber."

The amusing thing was that the correct map, and the fake, were completely different, except for the two passage ways that CAT-6 were taking down to the main chamber, aka. their ending destination and where the merc team had last made contact from.

Why Lukas didn't give them the proper map in the first place he didn't know.

"So we gotta go there still?"

Jason nodded.

"Okay, so let's keep moving" Dom passed the tablet back, "We can probably get there in the next hour or so if we don't stop, then team up with Carter and the others when we hit the chamber and search the place."

"Sounds like a plan." Said Dante.

* * *

Kat enjoyed the sun, the quiet and being by herself. She had always seen herself as being introverted, never really good at socialising unless it was about something she could easily talk about, demons, monsters, that sort of thing.

Coming to Capulet was… hard, leaving Limbo City behind, the place she'd come to call home, she had friends there and even after everything that happened she'd still care about the city, it's people.

She was just that sort of person.

Even so, she liked Capulet, a town by the sea, undisturbed by the world around it – well, except the demons - and she'd made friends, a few, mostly friends from work who would rather spend their nights drinking their wages away, but Kat couldn't be too fussy.

Even though a quiet evening with one of Zane's books was more her taste.

Still she couldn't complain about a thing, okay yeah, Dante needed to learn about basic hygiene and the like but nothing else bothered her.

Okay, _maybe_ being left alone to watch the shop bothered her but, like what was said before, she wasn't going to complain about it.

She'd been sat on the bottom of the shops steps for the past hour, just thinking, as she waited for the time to go by. Thinking about the small things really. Like, why did she get this feeling that something bad was going to happen? What was it that was pulling at her gut and making her wish that she was somewhere else. Where was Dante? Why hadn't Lukas dropped by to try and shout at Zane again?

She thought at first that maybe the weird uneasy feeling was because Dante wasn't there, he hadn't texted her this morning and she'd been worried all morning about him, in the end she had to tell herself that he'd probably forgotten he had a phone, or was still asleep.

But is he was working with mercenaries, then he'd be up already. Right? He be doing his mission, and getting himself into danger, getting attacked by demons when he'd least expect it and then have to fight his way out alone and-

Kat stopped her trail of thought, Dante was going to be fine, he always was.

She thought about other tihing, immediately she reminded herself that the shop behind her had driven her insane, almost. Zane hadn't been mothering the two of them like normal and so Kat had taken it upon herself to clean the whole place top to bottom as soon as Zane had left the day before. She had found way to many things around the place, mostly in Dante's room and the kitchen, that she never wanted to even think or hear about again.

Maybe she was still tired from cleaning and that's why she was feeling this way?

No, it wasn't that, maybe it was-

A young girl, no older than eight or nine bounced up in front her, rolling on her bright red shoes, Kat first noticed the yellow sun dress and the straw hat covering blond curls and shielding blue eyes. Kat stared up at the girl recognising her.

"Hello!" the girl smiled.

"Patty, right?"

Patty beamed, showing off a missing tooth. "You remembered! That's so cool. I'd knew you remember me."

Kat smiled, hugging her knees. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to say hi."

"Oh? Well, hi then."

Kat remembered the girl clearly, the daughter of Dante's client back in the Holstead mansion on the hill. The same girl who mentioned someone called Chloe that could see things that weren't exactly... of this world. When she asked Dante about this 'Chloe' sometime later he'd shrugged and said it was the girls imaginary friend.

An imaginary friend that can see things that you otherwise wouldn't see.

Kat didn't believe it but she had a feeling that Dante hadn't really questioned it himself and so then, had chosen to drop it.

But now-

"Patty, what did I say about running away like that? What if a car had come racing around the corner, might not have been able to pull you out of the way in time." A voice, male, accompanied by light steps on the pavement walked up to the two girls.

Patty turned to the stranger, smiling up at the man before them both. Kat instantly recognised him.

"I'm fine Morrison," Patty held her hands behind her back; "no cars are around at this time of day anyway, everyone's working silly."

"Yes, well, things can happen. Now why are we here again?"

Patty turned on the older man, disappointment on her face.

"We're taking Kat out remember? No girl like her should be stuck in such a dirty place like this with two guys. Okay yes one of them knows what deodorant is but honestly I don't care. Kat needs a good time out and since your babysitting me you're coming too Morrison."

Kat had never expected the girl to be so demanding, headstrong some would say, a brat say others.

"Haha, very well, but you have to ask her first."

Patty spun on her heels to Kat, hands behind her back, "Kat... Please come to my favourite place with me. Please."

Kat smiled, "What place is this?"

"It's a grown up bar!"

_'A strip club?'_ Kat glanced up to Morrison for an explanation, '_wasn't Patty a little too young to be going to those sorts of places_, _and smiling like it's the best place out at while she says it.'_

"What Patty means is that there's this small music bar on the other side of town that's frequented by adults."

"An adult bar!" repeated Patty.

Morrison sighed.

* * *

Kat gave in to Patty's request, being won over by a potential free ice-cream that supposedly rivalled that of Restaurant Fredi's. She joined them as they walked the ten minutes across town to the park. An open area of green with a small kids playground and a basketball court . People and families milled in and out of the area and its surrounding stores and restaurants carrying on their lives as normal. Kat thought it strange, the people of Capulet seemed to live, live a lot more than those back in Limbo City. A pro to choosing to come here she thought in the end.

Patty was having the time of her life, Kat's eyes followed her as she danced around in her bright yellow dress, holding onto her hat when she'd bolt over to a shop window to peer inside, hands on the glass. When they hit the park, and decided to go through it, she would stop suddenly every now and then only to call out to people she recognised. Greeting their parents first with gusto and formality before calling out the child's name and waving, a few she ran up to talked a while before noticing that Morrison was leaving her behind to which she hastily left to catch up.

She berated him often, saying that she had to be polite to everyone she knew and had to talk to them, Morrison ignored her a few times, or said that she was able to get to the place by herself and strictly speaking didn't require him to take here there.

Patty didn't agree, and called him an 'introverted, obtuse soul' that won't be getting any ice-cream.

They moved through the park and reached the… less than desirable part of town, but not to the point that Kat found herself wanting to leave, it was a part of town that had character, had a taste ready to fulfil the needs of everyone that passed though. Old buildings from when the town was first built now home to an array of shops and people, and Kat could see many crowding themselves into the coffee shops on either side of the stone pedestrianized street.

Patty seemed to calm after the park, walking next to Kat with less of a skip in her feet, Kat was expecting for her to bound off suddenly and exclaim that she had to have something she saw in another shop window but the girl stayed her course, following Morrison. Although she now seemed to concentrate on walking with the exact same feet as Morrison.

Morrison turned towards a alley and walked down just half way, before cutting into a room behind a shoe shop, Patty ran after him. Kat stopped at the entrance to the alley, looking up at the shoe shop "Scandalous Shoes" in bright pink stared down at her, the walls of the shops painted a low toned yellow. Kat cringed at the bad colour co-ordination before following the two, hips rolling.

* * *

When Kat pushed open the thick wooden door, laughing as Patty failed to hold it for her, she found herself stepping into long room, reaching past an archway half way down and a bar that sat along the right length. At the far end sat a thick blue curtain, half drawn to let in the light that was coming through from the bust street behind the place. As she stepped further, she felt herself being dragged up to the bar by Patty, who'd grabbed hold of her hand.

As Kat tripped to keep up with the girl, she spotted tables dotted around the room, people occupying them, unlit candles standing on the centre of each, a black board detailing the drinks of the day and tonight entertainment running from 7 pm to 12. At the far end of the room, just in front of the curtain was a group of males warming up brass instruments with low notes and hums. Surprisingly Kat noticed that the sound didn't travel very far, seemingly dying as it hit the archway.

Patty pulled herself up to one of the stool at the bar, greeting the stern faced man behind the bar with a smile and turned to Morrison next to her, who was in the midst of pulling off his jacket.

"Morrison, buy a drink so I can get ice-cream."

"Yeah, yeah, hold on." Morrison folded his jacket and dropped his hat on top ordering a whiskey.

Kat settled herself next to Patty looking across the room to the musicians standing on the stage. All of them wore normal clothes, one obviously out of school for the lunch break his school emblem on his blazer pocket. Another was wearing gear similar to the bartender (plus a fedora that remind Kat of Vergil briefly). A white shirt, collar up and a thin navy jumper that had been rolled up to accommodate for the lack of air conditioning on that side of the room.

"And what ice-cream would you like Miss Holstead?" asked the bartender, sharp features softened as he addressed Patty.

"I want… blueberry, with toffee crunch and chocolate, with marshmallows and sprinkles." Kat thought about that combination, the mess of colours and flavours that made Kat sick thinking about. The bartender seemed to be used to it, rolling his eye.

"What would you like?" he addressed Kat.

"huh?"

"Do you want ice-cream or not Kat? You can get ice-cream with anything that's got alcohol in it, I get Morrison's ice-cream because he's weird and doesn't like it."

"I haven't got a sweet tooth like you Patty that's why." Morrison thanked the bartender for his drink and took a sip. "and you better to mention this to your mother ok?"

"Okay!" Patty turned back to Kat. "If you don't like ice-cream I'll have yours, I've always wanted to try raspberry, banana and mango with cherry sauce, yoghurt and hazel nuts." The girl looked up at her longingly.

"Erm, I'll take anything with Jager and a chocolate ice-cream please."

The bartender nodded and stepped away to deliver the order to someone in the room next door. Kat heard him mention Patty's name, she could only assume that the young girl was a regular, or an exceptionally annoying customer.

Probably both with her wild choices.

"Hey Morrison." Patty pulled on the man shirt, a pleading tone in her voice.

"Yeah?"

"Is Verde here?"

Morrison looked up from his phone over the bar towards the stage.

"Yeah, he is." Turning back to his phone

Patty jumped forward in her seat, hands grasping onto the wood of the bar to pull herself forward, Kat watched her move in such speed with partial amazement and followed her gaze.

"Which ones Verde?" she asked.

"The really cute one." Said Patty, face with a huge grin that couldn't be described as anything less than when a girl sees her crush.

"The school boy?"

"No, the cuter one, with the saxophone."

The one with the rolled up sleeves then Kat figured, seeing as he was the only one with a saxophone. The man was perching off a stool and playing the trumpet melody of Almost Blue by Chet Baker (how did she know? Zane loved this song.) all in his own little world while the other musicians put their instruments away and talked in light tones to people occupying the nearby tables. The school boy packed away his trumpet and made to leave the bar saying a goodbye to everyone before he left.

Kat heard Patty sigh behind her.

"He's so dreamy."

Kat could see where she was coming from. It was either the slicked back hair, the way he'd closed his eyes as he played or that he had managed to throw himself into his music. A feat Kat had always found an endearing in people.

"And this is where I remind you that he's gay Patty." Morrison's voice, monotone but cut straight through Patty's clouded mind like a knife.

"_I know_ and it's not fair!" Kat heard a heavy 'thunk' on the bar, turning to see Patty dramatically groaning in.. pain? Defeat? She wasn't sure, but when Verde stopped playing and everyone looked at the two of them Kat just wanted to die in embarrassment.

Thankfully one look at Patty and they all went back to what they were doing, Kat watched as Verde looked at them for a little longer a faint smile as he watched Patty complain, before dipping his head and turning back to his music continuing as if he'd never stopped.

"One chocolate ice-cream and a special for Miss Patty." A young woman, cropped black hair and mismatching eyes stepped through with twin sundae glasses filled with ice-cream.

Kat was right, Patty's was just wrong, but it didn't deter the girl who stood on her seat and grabbed the sundae glass from the woman.

"Thanks Mary!"

The woman smiled and gave Kat hers, the bartender from before returning also with a jagerbomb in hand, he handed it to Kat.

"First timers get first drink for free." He said before glancing over to Patty's ice-cream, "How you can eat that Miss Holstead?"

"It's easy," Patty scooped up a spoonful of blueberry and chocolate. "You pick flavours you like, put them together and then eat them." She shoved the whole thing in her mouth giggling as the bartender.

Kat shared his exasperated sigh.

* * *

Zane had known Valdilan for a while, he knew that the man used to have a huge case of trypanophobia, or needle phobia, one that he over came only when his girlfriend at the time had an allergic reaction to a jab she was given while acting as a test dummy in University. With a missing practical teacher at the time he was the only one who knew instantly what to give her to calm her reaction, coping with his fear had been broken by the pure adrenaline running through him, he dealt with her symptoms within a few injections and a panic attack after realising he'd touched his greatest foe.

Valdilan had pulled himself out of his panic, and the girlfriend was saved.

Zane knew that Valdilan was a quiet guy, patient, introverted some would say, but got talking about anything that the guy knew about and he wouldn't shut up for hours. Zane could remember his first and only two years of University, where he'd listen to Valdilan teach him Chemistry and Biology as he revised his own subjects in History and English Literature. The guy would deviate as he went, talked about astronomy, or art, cultures, or even stupid things like the highest grossing musicals in the world.

He also knew, that ever since they had become friends, ever since Valdilan had found out that Zane wasn't exactly human, the guy would not stop talking when they were together.

"Val."

"hmm?"

"You alright?"

Valdialn held his gaze on the window of the bistro shop they had been sat in for the last 24 minutes, it was coming up to early evening, the sun setting behind the skyscrapers and the apartment blocks, illuminating half of the street outside. Zane watched as his hands, clasped in front of his mouth as they had been ever since he'd finished his coffee, moved away from his face, down to the cup to clasp at it's cold exterior. The man sighed, a long silent one.

"I'm fine, I'm just thinking."

"About what?"

"Things. Lots of things, like whether or not I'll be able to return home tonight, or if the company is going to shove that 1.5 million into our department as an incentive to work harder, or if the hospital board is going to request that I start working longer hours for them."

"You need to give your head a break Val, or you're just going to burn out." Zane watched as Valdilan grip tightened.

"I know, but there's just so much going on right now, not to mention all this happening with demons and angels. It's all so much and I know I can deal with it, it's just I have to figure out a way to."

Zane bit the inside of his lip, eyes firmly on his friend as he leaned back in his seat, red faux leather so muted in colour that it practically blended with Valdilan's dark, brown leather jacket .

"You can deal with it, you always have done." Said Zane.

"Yes. Well, we'll see."

Zane watched Val for a few seconds, the man failing to look back at him. Knowing he wasn't going to get anything out of the doctor he took to looking around the place. They say that light colour made a room look bigger, but between the yellow paint and the white carpet floor it was looking more like a hospital room than an bistro. Ironic, seeing as Val working in a hospital like environment 24/7 and seemingly this was the only place he went out to on a regular basis…

A young couple sat a few tables along from the, the man's face in clear view over Valdilan's shoulder, Zane watched as he spoke in quiet tones, his hand clasping the female's own, an engagement ring on his index finger. Another male, just sat at the bar sat quietly nursing a whiskey in his hand, black finger nails, dirtied face and dark blue jumpsuit unzipped to the waist, the guy looked like a janitor but Zane could smell the concrete dust and the dry earth clinging to his work boots.

"Zane."

"Yeah." The half angel looked back to Val.

"Would it be rude of me to say I wished I never met you?"

Had he been anyone else, anyone who didn't know that when you were with Val the term to "place yourself in someone else's shoes" was more or less a concept you had to permanently adopt, he'd have taken offense.

"No, not at all."

"Good... It's just…" Zane snorted as the doctor swore in his mother language, words harsh and quiet. "All this stuff on demons and angels, and this goddamned war they're having, _here_, right _now_, on _our_ world. It's just so-"

"Overwhelming?" Zane supplied.

"Arrogant. I mean, why here? Why not on their own land, hell, if they built Limbo why don't they build another world to fight in? They're like gods to the rest of us, capable of doing things we could never hope to imagine, and yet they choose this place." He gestured outside the window. "This rotting, short-sighted, naïve, world with people that can't even begin to comprehend their existence as anything more than just stories. Why bother to even step on this world?"

"Maybe they don't know any better themselves."

Val shook his head, and Zane realised he didn't get what the man was talking about.

"No, we know that they know better. Why did they choose to step onto our world, infect us, why did they choose to fall to our level, why are they allowing for their boundaries, their walls, that have been built for who knows how long to break?" the doctor swallowed. "Why have they allowed people like you to be born, why did they allow the Nephilim to be born? It doesn't make sense, if something is going to be a major problem you don't just ignore it and hope it goes away. Mundus would still be alive if he had killed Sparda the moment he sensed something was off about him regardless of what it was, the angels should've killed your parents the _moment_ you were conceived – banned any angel from coming to Earth."

_And yet they didn't, why?_

Zane turned his head down, he understood Valdilan's words, get rid of a problem before it became one so to speak, but yet he couldn't help but feel self-conscious. It made sense though, killing his parents meant that he wouldn't have been alive, he'd have never met Val, never pulled Dante and Kat out of Limbo City-

"I'm not saying I wish you were never born Zane. I know how it feels to have someone say that to you. But you understand me, right?"

"Yeah. I do."

They sat in silence for a while; Zane could feel his friend looking at him, concern that he'd offended him probably written all over his face. When the couple finally took their leave, placing down a twenty dollar bill for a glass of water and a coffee, Valdilan stood up.

"Hey." Zane felt knuckles hitting his temple lightly. "I've got something you'll want to see."

"Want to see or have to see?"

"Both."

As they stepped out onto the street corner, Valdilan calling back into the shop saying goodbye to the owner, Zane felt the breeze hit the side of his face. Whether accented by the 4x4 that had driven by as they walked out, or a signal for an oncoming thunderstorm, long awaited after the few days of clear skies and shrching heat the City had received, it didn't matter. The half angel scowled at the cold, pulled up the collar of his jacket and stuffed his hands into his pockets, he was tempted to pull up his hood as well.

Valdilan closed the door behind them, cracking a smile when he saw Zane shiver, before leading them back up the street to Zane's parked car.

It took them about half an hour to reach their next destination, silence broken by the directions the doctor gave Zane, thankfully not at the last minute.

As they passed from the North City to the Eastern one, coming off the ring road that surrounded the city and headed into Northtown, Zane watched as residential buildings came into view. Huge red-bricked apartment blocks with supposedly lush green parks and open spaces, shops on high streets and a large retail park heading towards the rest of the Eastern City. But now, as Zane drew the car closer to their destination, slowing down to look out through his window, there were no open areas, no clean streets or people walking around.

Soldiers, dressed in black armour and clothes, no recognisable military insignia on their upper arms placed them as part of any group, but each one wore the same gas masks over their faces. Assault rifles hand in gloved hands and as they came up to a metal wired gate they were stopped.

A full on checkpoint had been built on the road leading into Northtown.

Zane watched as three of the soldier stepped up to his car, cautious, glancing over to each other, guns rasied just that little higher. Valdilan pulled down his window, a hand slipping into his jacket to pull out his ID.

"Dr Valdilan Kurts," he handed the nearest soldier his badge with a small smile. "I work for Roman Enterprises as Chief Head of the First Medical and Biological Sector."

"Dr Kurts? You were here last week right? For the demonstration."

"That's me."

Zane watched the exchange, _demonstration? _

"Well, then no need to run you through the checks." The soldier passed him his ID. "Where you headed?"

"Thinking about heading over to one of the camps. Rho maybe."

"Right, well don't go any further than Tau Sector, we've got a few disturbances down there and wouldn't want you getting in the crossfire." The soldier motioned for the other two to step away from the car. "Have fun in there."

Val gave them a wave in thanks, winding up the window and telling Zane to drive past the check point. As they drove, Zane over heard one of the soldiers.

"Rho Two we've got 2 civies coming your way, highest clearance level 7, Dr V. Kurts."

As he drove them through the streets, he noticed as the people living within the district lived on around them. Slowing down allow them to move out of his way he noticed how… dead they all looked. Military men walked among them, guns out and eyes scanning all around them.

Not that they needed to be ready for anything, the people looked worse than those from Limbo, subjected under that Virility drink.

The residential housing would've provided enough room to home at least 10,000 people, but people had been forced to live in prefabs. Rusted corrugated iron buildings all shoved together in whatever space their owners could find, it was pretty much like looking at a shanty town built within a city. People huddled around metal can fires, bread lines ran from shop corners to the next block over. Zane could smell the desperation and the loss of hope even from within his car.

Further down the road they came across large concrete walls, only to find gated checkpoints leading into them. Zane slowed as they neared the first one, peering up at its high walls and counting the number of jarheads standing at post, movement at the far left caught both he and vals attention. They watched as a military officials shoved a woman and her teenage son into one of the concrete camps. Zane pulled down his window, listening to the cries of other people, other families, calling out to the military men asking them to let them out. Asking for food, for medical care, for water.

It was like watching animals being shoved into cages left to die.

Zane couldn't help but stare, turn his head round to Valdilan with a look on his face that demanded and answer.

_Why?_

"Refugees from Limbo City, arrived about 2 months ago - a couple of days after the city was destroyed and the demons dropped out of Limbo. The government wanted every person to be placed under immediate quarantine, tested, and those who were deemed to be susceptible to infection were forced to live in these camps." He looked over to the concrete walls on their left, the same one with the woman who had just been pushed back inside of. "While others had to deal with the housing left for them. They suspect that anyone from Limbo City has had direct contact with the demons, and so they could be carrying anything in them, a disease that could turn everyone into demons. Keep driving."

Zane moved the car forward, a firm grip on the steering wheel as he watched the camp from his rear view mirror.

"That's insane."

"Any more insane than demons actually exist? We're humans, when the demons popped out all over the world everyone panicked, our world leaders thought we were being attacked, rumour was that a nuclear warhead was going to be thrown at Limbo City."

Shit…

"Pull up here."

Zane stopped in a small car park just outside of a liquor store, closed, with wooden panels over its windows and doors. The two exited the car and immediately a military soldier ran up to the two of them, Val handed him his ID.

The soldier took a few moments to read the ID, looking up to match the photo with his face. Deeming it acceptable the soldier handed the card back to Val, nodding to Zane in question.

"Ah, he's one of my interns, shadowing me for his dissertation on the adverse effects of adding animal blood components to human DNA, focusing on those of an.. unnatural type."

All complete crap and both Zane and Val knew it, gladly the soldier didn't and gave out instructions to Valdilan before radioing ahead of their arrival to a 'Cotton Rho'.

They entered another gate, leading into camp Rho. Walking along the road and keeping their distance from the people and the military Zane looked up to the apartment blocks, trapped within concrete. He assumed that the previous tenants were forced to move out into another part of the city. As he followed Valdilan, feigning a curious intern, he spotted the security cameras on th elampost following them and the smell of antiseptic, sewage waste, and burning bodies.

They moved further into Rho, their silence broken by the soldiers on guard. They watched as Valdilan and him passed, muttering short talk to each other, fingering the trigger on their guns that they held in stiff arms.

"Dr Kurts." One spoke from behind his mask, filtered noise calling out the doctors name before Val had chance to even step up to another set of gated doors. "We were told of your arrival by Alpha sector. Welcome to Rho sector."

"Thank-you. I have an intern that would like to see the effect of the demons on a human body." Val pointed behind him to Zane, the half angel immediately puting up a weak smile, a smile of a scientist that was unnerved.

"If you wish," the soldier, seemed to throw his team mate a shrug, a motion for him not to question why to the doctor and his intern before stepping up to a console to the right of the gate. A hand scanner that flashed into blue life and clicked in appreciation of an acceptable hand signature, the gates slid open automatically, the electric current in them turned off.

The soldier watched them as they passed the gate into a wired fenced area, before closing it behind them. Val led them though a bright yellow decontamination tent built on the entrance. Inside a third soldier nodded at them as they passed, seemingly allowed to bypass the two scanners and the human shaped unit on the wall Zane could only assume was built to check for any anomalies in the people passing in and out.

Upon exiting land that would've once served as part of a green area in between two of the apartment blocks was now dried dirt, cleaned of any prefabs, instead cages, big enough to fit two huge bears inside, lined on all sides of the open area. Dark huddled shapes filled them, and Zane found himself walking up to one of the cages.

A hand grabbed hold of his shoulder, the half angel looked back to see a stare locked onto the cage in front of him.

Zane knew Val. He knew that the first memory Val could ever recollect from when he was a child was picking up his mother's wine glass for her from the table, only to break it and face the wrath of his father, telling him he was useless, a waste of space. He was forced to sit in his room for the rest of the day.

He knew that Val, although seemingly hated his job, working with patients and teaching, he loved every minute of it and wouldn't trade it for anything else.

He knew that when Val had _that _look, a look that could break into pure anger or tears at any word, something was wrong, _incredibly_ wrong.

Zane turned back to the cage.

"Meet the work of the Fourth and Fifth M&B Sector of the Roman Enterprises."

* * *

_REVIEW REPLIES_

_Mememe- I'm doing my best with the updating, promise! It's just I more or less put up a chapter once I've finished it and edited it for the last time. So I've got that lapse time where I remember what's happened throughout the whole thing, whose spoke to whom, the small things I've put in that will make sense later on, and try to get in the mood to write the next chapter. I do my best, and I won't give this fiction up! That's basically what I decided when I started it; "I will keep going till I finish it, no excuses TO THE EXTREME!" Complex backgrounds for my characters? Well I wouldn't say complex more like…. Thought through (?) I can't write about a character unless I know their background. So like with Noah in the last chapter I HAD to have everything about his past down in my head, or there about, until I actually wrote his segment. I feel like if I don't have a characters background down then I can't completely and wholly write that character effectively. If you get what I mean. Thanks for the review though!_

_day369- lemons? Now, are you talking about the acidic citrus fruit, saying that something is useless or bad in the fiction (but then you say cool story so I doubt it), or talking about the fanfiction containing sexual acts between characters although the term is normally used under the anime/manga side of the internet? I joke~ When I saw lemons I immediately panicked thinking I had somehow, without my recollection, put in something yaoi like in the latest chapter (in my head lemon = yaoi, don't ask why please), sex scene or what not, then I realised that I couldn't write that sort of thing to begin with so yeah.. thanks for the review though!_

A huge thanks for sticking along with this damn thing so far. Drop me a comment if Kat's OOC, I need to get into her character more ready for the later chapters so a third party opinion of what I got so far and on her character in game will be great.

08/08/2013

chapter's fully complete & edited. I'll get back to writing next week.


	13. Chapter 13: Not bad, for a Nephilim

_**- CHAPTER 13: NOT BAD, FOR A NEPHILIM -**_

"We're coming up on the last chamber, we'll hit it when you do." said Jason motioning for them to make a turning just a few steps ahead, leading them down into a another tunnel which would descend them deeper underground..

"Okay. Full radio contact from here on." Ordered Carter. Dante could hear the silent click as Dom, JD and Alex all linked in to his communicator.

"Hey guys, miss us?" Dante could hear the smile on JD's face, his eastern European accent light hearted and almost breathless.

"Nope." Answered Jason, pulling his hand away from his headset and down to his gun.

"Aww M, I'm hurt. I thought we we're getting somewhere you and I. I mean, you actually let me touch your computer this morning, or evening. What time is it?"

"JD if you don't shut up I'll go over there and beat the living shit out of you." Jason growled.

Dom pointed ahead of him, elbowing Jason to take notice. Ahead of them was another door, flat grey metal shined under their torch light, as they neared Dom jogged ahead to check it out.

"You can try, but I doubt you- OW!"

"Quiet JD, you talk like a child, constant and nauseating." Alex's thick voce cut through the feed, drowning out JD's further complaints, when JD managed to stop talking Dante smiled.

"Cheers Ottoman." said Jason. Dom stepped away from the door and nodded in affirmation that the door could be opened.

"My pleasure."

Jason clicked with his tongue and caught up to the other soldier, looking down at the door.

"Ready?"

Dom raised a hand, to wait, turning off his light and pulling his gun into his hand and unclipping the safety, knees bent and he stepped backwards, so he'd be in clear view of whatever was inside the next area. His actions spurred Jason to pull out his M4A1, loading it with ammo, turning off his light, plunging them into darkness. Dante watched as the light in limbo was unaffected; the orange glow around him was pulsing at a faster rate.

As they had walked that orange glow running in a vein like structure through the tunnel walls had remained surrounding him. They pulsated regularly, white invading through the red and Dante would feel al light surge of energy run around him. Like a heartbeat was channelling demonic energy through them. But there was nothing to show what was causing it.

Dante assumed that ahead of them, past the door, was the end of this long line of tunnels. Beyond this would be a series of three chambers all linked together, Carter and his team would enter one, they in another, meeting at the third where the science team and the mercs were last reported to have been in.

Dom pushed against the door, it creaked under his light touch and even as both men visibly cringed at the sound, it wasn't loud enough for Dante to hear in Limbo. Jason placed his hand flat near its hinges and helped push It fully open. Suddenly the door groaned, and both men pulled back. Guns pointed at the small opening they had made expecting something to come greet them. Dante heard that one, and even if he didn't the pulsing seemed to skip a beat, he looked up as it continued in the veins above him, he silently stepped up behind Dom to see if there was anything coming from the other side.

Dom shuffled his feet in front of him, breathing in heavily to calm the jumping in his chest, the noise was clearly loud enough that someone could've heard them from the other side.

Dom breathed in again.

"Petrol. Something's been burned recently." He whispered.

Jason gave him a questioning look, until the smell past him. He pursed his lips and turned his head in disgust, nodding in affirmation.

"Science guys you think?" asked Dante.

Jason shook his head. "Low oxygen levels down here, nothing would still be able to burn this far down for this long." He poked Dom's shoulder to tell him to move forward.

Dom reached forward and pushed against the door again, assuming that there was nothing on the other side waiting for them he pushed harder, ignoring the creaks and groan the door gave him in return until it was fully open. The two of them stepped into the darkness with light foot falls, the leather boots creaking ever so slightly, guns clicking as fingers were placed on the trigger keys. Dante inwardly groaned, again, another freaking domed room with another goddamn door on the far side-

"GET DOWN."

Dante dropped to the ground, rolling over his shoulder. Acting before he realised the order wasn't for him, Jason and Dom had dropped to the ground, rolling to the side. Their gear scrapped along stone floors, floors that pulsed red as soon as they touched it to Dante's eyes. They knelt up, turned and raised their guns. Dom had one eye down the scope while Jason stared ahead of him.

When Dante followed their sight he was, a little taken back to say the least. Stood where they had just been back to them, and right beside Dante, stood a humanoid being three times their size, skin curled and ripped off budging, bleeding muscles, burnt at the edges and blistering where it remained. A chest heaved and wheezed, hands dropped low either side, its head lowered to the ground. What was strange was that the creature was wearing clothes, a white lab coat, checked shirt and slacks, like some sort of science guy version of the hulk.

Just minus the green skin and the broken English.

"What the shit?" Words flew out before Dante could think properly. The creature suddenly snapped it's head up, and as it was about to turn Dom put a bullet through its head.

The creature fell forward, heavy weight dropping straight to the ground, seemingly dead. Dante was hesitant, waiting for it to get back up and charge at them.

Jason and Dom had another idea. Boots hit the ground in a run, and Dante heard a pin being pulled. Dom ran over the creature, straddling its neck, he pulled out a knife and dug it straight into the creatures skull, turning it to the side to let Jason shove a live grenade in its mouth. In a quick movement the two pulled away, jogging away as it exploded, destroying the creatures head. They didn't look back, and Dante realised why, the creatures head was gone.

"What's going on?" asked Carter.

"Cap. We've got 10 foot Tango's, they look like people." Answered Dom.

"10 foot?"

"Yeah, and they look like people, with full body third degree burns."

"Did the simple way do the trick?"

"We made sure by blowing up its head with a grenade."

Carter laughed. "That's my boy. Alright, got it, keep going."

As the conversation ended Dante stood up, still a little taken back by the size of the creature and the way the two soldiers took it out, he didn't expect the two of them to move so quickly. He watched Dom and Jason step to their left, looking from left to right as they went, as if they hadn't just taken down a 10 foot tank with no more than a bullet and a grenade.

A cackle shot through the room and Dante rolled his eyes. As if he'd forget that voice any time soon.

"I am amazed! You actually managed to get this far." Jester chuckled as he spoke, as if everything was just so fucking hilarious. Dante heard the demon creep up behind him, the sceptre being spun in the demons hands. "And your little friend managed to defeat one of those monsters, _how exciting_!"

Dante hesitated to give the demon what It wanted, was for him to talk to it, but thought better and began moving to the other side of the room.

"Wait! Wait wait wait wait!" Jester appeared in front of him, sceptre suddenly pushed into Dante's chest to stop him. "You haven't even heard what I was going to say, running off like that could get you into a lot of trouble Nephilim." The gold point dug into his sternum.

"I don't need your help." Dante shoved the sceptre away and continued walking. He heard Cat-6 talking to each other through his headset.

Jester, although Dante hadn't touched him, dramatically fell to the side rolling over his shoulder and back onto his feet. He looked to his left, as if he was addressing someone there.

"Isn't he so rude? He must make all the little girls cry."

Dante ignored its taut.

"Perhaps we should give him a little spanking huh?"

Dante didn't hear the demon appear at his side, nor did he expect it to suddenly trip him over with that damned sceptre of his.

"Woops!"

As Dante found the wind knocked out of him from hitting the floor he felt the weight of Jester sitting on the hollow of his back, making it a little harder to breathe.

"Now boys and girls let's all listen to Jester as he tells you this story."

"Get off me." Dante growled out. He felt dirt under his hands and his shirt had rised upwards in the fall, the floor was bloody cold to say the least;

"Once upon a time, in a faraway land, lived a man in a castle. A very powerful, handsome and rich man who ruled the whole world. But! It wasn't enough, the man wanted more power, he didn't just want to rule the world he wanted to- WOAH"

Dante rolled over, and swung to his feet, causing Jester to fall back onto the floor.

"That wasn't very-!"

Dante had had enough, and drawing out Rebellion he swung her down to the side of Jesters face.

"Shut. Up."

"Shutting up." Replied the demon.

"Now, tell me what it is you want before I decide to kill you." Dante pulled out Ivory and aimed it for the demons head, a part of him expected that if he did shoot the demon would just evade that attack like last time. But still, the threat was very much real, and very much there.

"Nothing really, I'm just here to see how the story plays out. How our dashing male protagonist will defeat the powerful, handsome and rich man from taking over the demon world."

"Story?"

Jester smiled, a teeth baring smile that told Dante that the creature was hiding something from him. Blue and red eyes sparkled in a sadistic fashion and the creature wiggled under him.

"You've got to go deeper into hell to figure it out Nephilim."

"How about you tell me now, it's either that or I kill you."

"Oh wow, you are scary! I'm just shaking in my boots I'm so scared." The demon raised his arms up palms facing Dante. "Please, _please_ don't hurt little old me."

Dante had enough, he lifted Rebellion and stepped away from Jester.

"Wait. Wait wait wait wait!" The demon was in front of Dante once more. "If you go past this door you'll reach the hell gate, and if you get lost, **_you're not going to get out_**."

The change in the demons voice made Dante step back a little, the carefree voice had turned deep, dark and just like that of a hunter demon.

"I'll take my chances." Dante pushed past the demon once more and headed over to the generator by it. Rebellion turned into Arbitor ready to strike.

Thankfully Jester didn't make another comment, Dante felt its mismatched eyes watch him.

* * *

To Dante's eyes the room was domed, another familiar room with a door on the other side – except this one was considerably larger than the one's previous. To Dom and Jason however, it was like they had walked into some sort of oversized abandoned asylum from a bad horror movie– a hallway oversized enough to fit that 10 foot thing from before without its head crashing against the ceiling. Large tiled corridors, halogen lights - long since died- hanging from thin wires from the ceiling and a series of doors all along the side leading into small holding rooms. Dom checked in a room to their right, he could hear Jason behind him walking backwards while following.

The room was small, enough to fit one person to live in with basic needs. As he moved further in he noticed a makes shift bed, a backpack and what looked to be medical equipment, open and contents discarded along the floor.

He moved over to the pack spotting a empty bottles of morphine and sleeping pills.

"We've got Roman Industries here" said Dom, lifting up the bottle under his torch light.

"So they were down here." Said Carter. Dom heard Jason move up behind him looking over his shoulder to see. "What do you guys see right now?"

"A hospital." Answered Jason.

"Same… Right keep moving for now" order Carter. "We'll get to the central chamber and work on from there."

Dom stood up, following Jason out and back into the corridor. They were finally getting close to where they needed to be, just get the intel they found and get out, and save anyone who may still be alive. That was the order they were given.

Jason suddenly stopped, and Dom found himself shoved into another room, both men fell back and Jason slammed himself up against one of the walls. Dom stumbled and looked up at the man.

"What?"

Jason pushed a finger to his lips in urgency, and pointed outside. Dom closed his mouth and crept up to the door, still open, and looked down the corridor. Even in the darkness Dom could see them, two more of those hulking monsters were stood in complete silence. Had Jason been stuck in his own thoughts like Dom the two of them would've walked right into them.

Dom turned to Jason, still able to see the creatures in the corner of his eye. He lowered his gun, allowing it to hang from the strap and raised his hands.

_We need to kill them._ He hand signed.

Jason lowered his beloved M4A1.

_Same way? _he replied.

Dom hesitated in answering, they could do the same thing as before, but there were too many variables, the head shot from before was luck, not on his ability to target but that he didn't actually know if it'll work or not. If it did this time he'd have to fire in the darkness again, it was a miracle that somehow both men were able to see the monsters and where they were going to begin with. And on top of this, what if it didn't work, what if these monsters were different from the last? Dom knew that demons, although the same class had varying weaknesses and strengths, what if these two weren't affected by a bullet to the head?

_Yes. _Dom pulled out his one flash grenade holding it up. Standard training told everyone that a flash, or stun, grenade knocks a person's vision for approximately 5 seconds, if he could use the light to be able to shoot the two in the head then he could manage to take them both down before the light died and the monsters charged at them.

Dom threw the grenade up, catching it again and weighing out his chances. He ignored the questioning looks from Jason that quickly turned into a move to try and stop him. Dom ignored his friend and stepped out, purposely knocking his gun against the door; it clanged against the metal making a noise loud enough for the monsters to hear. Dom watched them shift in the black and he pulled the pin out of the grenade throwing it behind him.

In his head Dom counted the seconds for the grenade to go off, ignoring the heavy footsteps of the monsters and the roar as they neared.

His third count and the grenade went off, an ear-piercing scream of the blast knocked his hearing clean out and the light illuminated everything within the corridor. The monsters stopped, pulling arms over their eyes and curling in on themselves as their balance and hearing was lost.

Dom raised his gun, turned in onto its manual setting and fired. Four bullets at each pull of the trigger burst out of the barrel and hit their targets, two for each monster, two bullets cleanly hitting them in the head.

But Dom didn't see the outcome as the light was too much in the corridor and knocked his sight out as soon as he fired the last shot, the ringing in his ears had died and all he heard was a high pitch, the light forcing him to close his eyes.

He'd thrown the grenade to close to him, grenades this close could kill, was his back already burning from the heat? Had he fallen onto his knees from the lack of balance? What about the monsters, had he even hit them?

"Dom-!"

Jason voice, shouting down his ear brought Dominic back, the high pitched shrill in his ear subsided

"Dom. You alright?"

Dom felt Jason's hand over his shoulder, bringing the British soldier back. He blinked heavily shook his head and opened his eyes.

"They dead?"

Jason nodded, "Yeah, just shoved my last two grenades in them just to make sure."

Dom saw the monsters, lacking their heads, blood splattered over the floor.

"Good."

"You alright?"

"I'm fine." Dom shook off Jason's firm grip and stepped forward. "We need to catch up with the others."

"Uh, guys?" Dante voice was shaky and almost confused.

"You alright Dante?" asked Dom, feeling the shake in his knees.

"I'm in some sort of hospital and there's four of those things right in front of me.."

Dom and Jason took one look at each other and ran up the corridor.

"Shoot them in the head!" shouted Jason.

"What?"

Ahead of them, were the four that Dante spoke of, and as Jason and Dom could see them they spotted them, two turned away from Dante and made for them.

"Shoot them in the head Dante!" shouted Dom, this time the young man understood and raised his twin set at the two heading towards Dom and Jason.

Dom reloaded his gun and fired bullets, only to distract them as Dante shot past the two facing him and fired his twin guns into the backs of the two monsters. Dom stopped as the two monsters fell to the ground, firing at the remaining two that had now turned round to face Dante. Dom felt Jason reach around his waist unhooking the two incendiary grenades that he had.

"Move Dante!" Jason unpinned the grenades and threw them straight at the monsters. Thankfully, although Jason wasn't too bothered if he got caught in the blast or not, ducked and ran between the remaining two beasts.

The grenades exploded as they hit the ground, burning the four bodies on impact. Dom immediately pulled them away from the explosion into one of the rooms, waiting out the massive heat waves that surged through the corridor.

The sound died down and fire burned what was left of the monsters.

* * *

"Dante. What the fuck.." breathed Jason, rubbing at his arm where Dom had gripped him too harshly.

"You're telling me." Dante leaned against the wall, one hand bracing himself upright on one knee the other rubbing the back of his head.

"Thought you were stuck in Limbo?" Dom gave him a hand up.

"I was, but then I hit one of those generators and I'm suddenly here with you guys."

"Hey, Ottoman, any ideas?" Not that Jason liked to admit it but Alex was their resident Demonology expert.

"Possibly hell gate on the other side. Like what that creature told Gemini."

"You heard that?" asked Dante.

"It is hard to ignore annoying voices"

"That better not be directed at me, Alex!" shouted JD.

"Can it JD." Said Jason.

Alex chuckled lightly. "A hell gate can distort the surrounding area, being a direct line from Hell to our world. I suspect something like Limbo cannot sustain itself near one, unless someone is holding it there."

"So there isn't a demon that pulled me into limbo?"

"I suspect that the demon from before did it to see how we would react. It misunderstood that you haven't been with us for very long, probably assumed we couldn't work effectively without a Nephilim."

Dante snapped his head up, eyeing both Jason and Dom.

"You know I'm a Nephilim?"

Dom nodded, smiling at him.

"It's kinda hard to get a normal human into Limbo and Lukas told us before you got to the house." He watched as Jason headed out of the room. "I doesn't bother us."

"You could've said that you knew." _Then I didn't have to hide my demon weapons before._

Dom shrugged, leading Dante back out, stopping just behind Jason.

"We've got another one." Said Jason in a hushed voice, pointing with the end of his gun down the corridor to the door at the end, the one Dante had been at previously.

"I've got it."

This time, Dante took the stage, he'd seen how Dom and Jason had taken down the other four. He could do this one himself. Running up to the hulking beast, Dom and Jason not far behind, he watched as it's body twitched in realisation of him nearing it. Dante was ready for it to strike at them. And as the creature turned on them, military gear, torn where the creature had grown from a man into what it was now, tearing further, and raised a single hand. Dante pulled out Ebony and Ivory firing bullets into the creature's body, puss sacks exploded and blood seeped out from semi healing wounds. The creature, unperturbed, swung its hand down on him, Dante dodged it, rolling to his side and drawing out Rebellion. Without having to hide his demon and angel heritage anymore he felt it shift in his hands into Aquila, the cyclone blades spun once in his hand, angel power shifting from each end to its centre as it moved.

Dante threw one at the creature, causing it to watch as the blade spun past its head and behind it.

At the same time as Dante had dodged, Dom jumped to the other side, in the corner of Dante eyes Jason had followed him, and both men managed to miss the oncoming attack from the monster. Dom rolled, lifted his gun, as Aquila spun past the creature he shot it cleanly through the head.

The creature's head snapped back, the NATO round going straight through it. A silence, and Dante could hear Jason behind him breathe in.

The creature groaned, a deep rumble from within it, and it lurched forward at them. Dom moved again, keeping his body low as he fired three shots into the creatures head once more. Further bullets flew with his own from Jason gun, targeting where the creatures heart would be. Dante summoned back Aquila and the weapons turned into Arbiter, with the creature heading towards Dom Dante ran up behind it, swinging the giant axe straight into the creatures lower back, severing the spine with a crack and a pop. The creature stopped.

Dante pulled back, Ebony and Ivory back into his hands, he unloaded a full round of demon bullets into it, bullet holes running up its back.

It didn't take long after the clip had unloaded into the monster for it to drop onto its knees and hit the ground.

"Not bad." Said Dom. "even for a Nephilim."

Dante laughed.

"Thanks."

* * *

"And Wilson is heading for the try line, will this be the-? No Gerad is coming up behind him, Gerad is coming in to take him out and- "

The front of the bar erupted into a mix of cheers and cries of failure, some congratulating and other name-calling. All drowning out the sound from the TV screen, showing the live rubgy match between England and Scotland, although it was a sure bet for England to win, the Scottish supporters were still strong, chanting names and buying more than acceptable amounts of alcohol for a noon game.

Zane rolled his eyes at their outburst hearing them even from his table outside the bar. A stiff drink near his right hand as it slid over his phone, fingers playing his sixteenth game of solitaire since he sat down.

The cheers were hushed as the game seemingly resumed inside, creating a few moments of silence before the place returned to it's normal light chatter accompanied by the commentators from the TV.

Zane bit the inside of his mouth when he realised that he was going to lose this game, deciding whether or not to quit. He tapped fingers along his drink, picking up the weight and rolling it side to side in boredom.

He gave up the game, hitting the power button and moving one leg out from under the table.

Should he leave now? He has waited over 20 minutes already.

Feet tapped on the ground and the drink, half-empty called to be finished. Zane sighed, thoughts interrupted by increasing voices from inside. The drunken calls and boisterous laughter made him twitch, and although amusing at first he was beginning to get slightly annoyed at their constant noise.

It was just a game.

A group of young kids, he would count them as teens no matter how hard they tried to look older – he could see it in their faces, passed the bar looking in through the main door to see the people inside. The two girls giggled as the crowd inside roared in cheers again and carried on. Zane watched as the three boys talked amongst themselves so deep in conversation that one walked into a man coming the other way.

Zane watched as the man stopped, looking down at them and watched as they carried on walking without a word of apology to him. He shrugged his shoulders, probably expecting that Central Alderidge didn't teach their kids any common decency – which they didn't – and continued on.

White jacket, dyed red, Bob Marley like dreadlocks all tied up, yellow sunglasses and a neon green backpack sporting one to many badges.

Zane was... surprised, he honestly didn't expect the guy to show up. It wasn't like his bait was well planned out neither did he actually think about the whole thing to begin with properly, it was just a plan he made the night previous and hoped it would work.

Seems like this guy was well in the loop in the city.

Zane leaned back against the table picking up his glass and looked down the street from where the guy had just come up from, he watched him turn towards one of the empty tables throwing his bag under it and sliding in to sit down. The man's back was facing him, but he'd turned to be able to look inside the bar.

Zane watched him for a few minutes, the guy who served Zane earlier came to clear up the empty glasses on the table but otherwise ignored the man sat there.

Fingers drummed on the table, Zane gathered himself together, picking up his phone and standing up. He stretched, yawned loudly and headed over to the guy, moving to sit down facing him.

"Can I help you?" the man was still turned away, looking inside as if to try and watch the game.

"Yeah, I heard there was a dark haired, gorgeous looking Lilu walking around central Alderidge city today. Supposedly it likes targeting people who are in this bar, takes them home, seduces them, you know. The normal Incubus thing." Zane spoke like it was an everyday occurrence to talk about something of the supernatural sort, and it was to him. But to the elderly couple just a few tables away and would think otherwise.

The man looked at him from the corner of his eye, Zane watched as the gold eyes shined, the man turned to face him, black painted nails scratched at the wood..

"And where did you hear about this?" the guy asked.

"Nowhere. I planted the info."

The guy stilled, looked down to his hands and laughed quietly.

"I can't believe I fell for it."

"I'm glad you actually showed up." Said Zane. "It was completely last minute."

The man looked up at him, the glow of his eyes, the way he looked like he'd ran a thousand miles just to be here. He was definitely demon, he'd seen so many over the year it was easy to tell the differences, no matter how hard they tried to take on a human form, or borrow one.

"So what's it like being a Cambion?" asked Zane, actually interested in the man's answer. "Now are you the child of a succubus and incubus or an incubus and a human woman?"

The man broke into a smile, "A bit of both really."

Zane nodded.

"Now, my question." The man leaned forward, lowering his voice as he spoke, as if he couldn't let the elderly couple hear him. Not that they could, they were so busy discussing where they were going to go on the upcoming bank holiday weekend. "What are you doing here _Watcher_."

Watcher, or better known as Grigori, are the children of both an angel and a human. The strengths of neither and the weakness of both, a creation that God has somehow allowed to exist amidst everything else going on. The book of Enoch does say that the angels that came down from heaven to watch over the Earth are the Grigori themselves, a term taken after they fell into the clutches of lust towards human women, and their children are called Nephilim. Seems that some 3000 years ago a lack of translation wasn't the biggest problem in the world to fix.

"Just doing my thing. Trying not to get killed."

"I heard that female angel was after your kind. Supposedly she's very good at her job."

"Yeah, I'm next on her list." Zane straightened up his phone, looking down at it when it vibrated between his fingers, a text had come through.

A confused looks passed over the man, he leaned back slightly, voice still low.

"How do you know?"

"I saw her a few weeks back." Zane shrugged.

"And you're not dead? I should be impressed."

"There's nothing to be impressed about. Daddy's an archangel and so I get chucked further down the waiting line."

"Depends on the archangel."

"Zerachiel."

A name's unfamiliar to those who aren't of Christian faith, and when Zane found out about him even he had never hear the name. Supposedly, Zerachiel is a very well loved archangel, controlled the angels that watched over the Earth, protector of children, mainly over those that have a difficult home life and a angel of healing.

He's a very good role model in all shape and form.

"Never heard of him."

Zane didn't return his nonchalance.

"To answer your question, I'm here to ask you about the demon situation around town. More specifically of the northern part of the city and the sectioned eastern part for the refugees."

"I don't normally work those sectors."

"Is there someone who does?"

"No." the man folded his arms. "demons don't generally go up to that part of town."

"Why?"

"Because of that building, Roman Enterprises. There's something weird going on in there…" the man looked away, clearly disturbed by something. Had he been inside? Seen what was going on. Valdilan never told Zane what he did there and he had told Zane not to turn up there looking for him, **at all.**

"And the area sectioned out for the refugees."

The man didn't answer for a few moments, whether to figure out what words to say or lost in thought of when he had possibly seen the place.

"Humans call us demons monsters, evil. But that, what's going on there, is worse than anything we'd ever cause."

* * *

You'll have to forgive me, losing the "muse" for this here & I'm looking for something to gimme a hand getting it back. I won't stop writing this though, just chapter updates may be longer apart than they have been in the past.


	14. Chapter 14

_**- CHAPTER 14 -**_

He got in earlier than expected, asked at the reception desk if anyone had turned up asking for him - can't be too careful who hears about him and his whereabouts - and headed up to his room. 4 star hotel and he hadn't bothered to look at the prices for the rooms.

He just needed a place to stay in for the week, and thankfully everything is being charged to Lukas's account.

Because he's that sort of friend.

Stepping into the room, obviously recently cleaned as the maid was only a couple of doors down the hall, he shrugged off his jacket and shoes walking to the bathroom.

A vibration in his pocket and he pulled out his phone, hitting the answer button and loud speaker placing it on the plastic shelf to the left of the sink.

"Fucks sake, man, get outta my fucking way! yeah, look at what you're doing you useless excuse for a human being who can't even fucking drive properly! Oh shit. Yo Zane."

"Hey Luce." Zane smiled at the nickname, twisting the cold tap on, hand bracing him against the sink.

"Fuck man, don't call me that name." Lukas whined, swearing again under his breath.

"Bad traffic?"

"Nah, just crap drivers. Think they own the god damn road-" there was a slam, probably Lukas shoving on the breaks "Look at this faggot, cut me off, oh man if I wasn't so morally right I'd blow him up right now."

"You aren't morally right Lucy." Zane breathed.

"Good point, maybe I should just blow him up and see how he lives after that, and for god's sake stop calling me girly names!"

"He's a human he probably wouldn't live." Cupping his hands under the stream, collecting water between his palms before throwing it up onto his lowered face. The water swept over the hot sweat that had overcome him a few minutes after leaving that guy at the bar. He repeated the process, distantly hearing Lukas's voice coming from his phone.

Heat rushed up from his stomach and he shuddered as a feeling of sickness came over him. Hands came down on the sinks edge with enough force to make it crack, his chest tightened and he felt like something was choking him, coughs and harsh breaths made his knees weak and his stomach flipped.

_'fuck me_.'

He swallowed heavily, forcing down bile and breathed in. Holding it.

Lukas fell into another bout of swearing, a typical string of words to insult the drivers around him. Zane tried to pay attention to him trying to find that calm he felt from his friends voice whenever they talked but to no avail, his mind went into overdrive, tongue seemed to swell in his mouth making it dry, his head pounded at the front and his vision swam. He felt the sweat wash over him again, the feeling of the walls close in and as he looked up in the mirror he stopped.

Staring right at him was himself, of course, but this wasn't just a mirror image, a mirror image didn't stare at you like it was waiting for you to run or scream in fear. It didn't look at you like it was ready to hunt you down.

The mirror image, him, broke into a smile, canine teeth, blood seeping out, rolling down his chin and neck, dripping out of sight. A hand raised up to touch the top of the mirror, palm placed down against it fingers outstretched. Zane watched the mirror image leaned forward, and in one fluid movement it's jaw unhinged and It screamed at him. A sharp deafening scream that caused him to snap his head down and cover his ears. He pulled away, backing into the radiator behind him.

The scream stopped as soon as he looked away but the fear had settled in, and it took a few moments to compose himself. He breathed in, counted to twenty, slowly, and breathed out. Gripping harder onto the sinks edge as his chest constricted again, he heard his heart in his ears, muscles in his legs twitched and he breathed in once more, and began counting down.

He heard Lukas call his name, and the sensations began to weaken, his body allowed him to breathe, his heart rate slowed. He swallowed, his dry mouth moistening and he looked up.

'_At least I don't look like shit_.'

He turned off the tap, grasping at the white towel hanging off a silver, heated, rack to his right. Drying off his face he walked out of the bathroom, phone in hand. Padding over to the mini bar he opened it up and pulled out the litre bottle of Smirnoff.

"Hey Zane you there?"

Phone in one hand, vodka bottle in the other, he made his way to the bed, flopping down on the caramel covers and flicking on the TV. It turned on to one of those information channels, the ones that hotels run to tell you how to use the TV and what services the hotel had to offer and the like. Not that people had eyes to figure that out for themselves. He uncapped the bottle taking a drink tapping a finger on his phones screen.

"Zaaaaaane. Are you there?"

"Yeah I'm here." He changed the channel again, keeping hold of the liquor bottle, coming up on a news channel, '_nope_', an afternoon cooking show, '_nope_', home decorating show, '_nope_',

"Did you read my text earlier? Saw Sophia getting in at the train station this morning, bitch was walking around like she owned the god damned place."

adverts, '_no'_, adverts, '_no'_, porn channel, '_not right now'_, and back to the information channel. 'news it is.'

"Are you even listening?"

"Yeah, I'm listening. Makes sense, just had a sick spell or something again."

"You alright."

"No."

"Well at least you're not dead."

"Yay." said Zane, less than enthusiastic. He took another drink, the burn settling heavily in his stomach, he welcomed it. He watched as the two reporters on the screen, one of both sex, talked to the Mayor of the city about the allocation of the refugees in Eastern Alderidge.

'_they can't still be arguing about this? Well, they'll have a full on riot if they saw what was going on in there._'

"I'm coming over." Said Lukas.

"Hmm?"

"If that bitch is around it's my responsibility to watch you. I'm coming over."

"Lukas, I'm fine."

"Yeah you may be fine now, but you've probably almost broken another window or something with that goddamn freak out of yours and what if she suddenly decides to send her lackeys after you? that's over a dozen angels if we're just counting the ones I saw this morning."

"I'm fine." Zane groaned. '_Honestly, does he ever quit? Let me just wallow in my aches and pains._'

"No, I'm coming over right now, where are you?"

"I'm not telling you!"

"For fucks sake Zane, tell me where your ass is or I'll hunt you down." Lukas shouted.

Zane bit down on his lower lip, the short temper of his best friend wasn't one he broke often.

"Sunrise Plaza Hotel, room 322." Zane gave in, kicking himself internally.

"Stay on the phone until I get there. And for god's sake I'm not mad at you."

"You're shouting."

"I'm just annoyed."

"Because you're being like an over protective babysitter."

"Because you're a fucking retard."

"uh huh.." Zane deadpanned. Thinking back at all the times Lukas had broken social norms, gotten them arrested or close to being arrested, and was generally a complete idiot when he should have known better.

"Don't give me that."

"What?" Zane watched as the news finished and broke into adverts, he immediately picked up the remote and changed the channel. What appeared next, well, it shocked and confused him. "_What?_"

"What?" Lukas's voice went ignored as Zane jumped to the other end of the bed to get closer to the TV, his body protested but he ignored it.

"No. Way."

"Zane, what's going on?"

"No fucking way."

"What?"

Zane broke into laughter, as the colours depicting of a high budget burlesque like show flashed across the screen and the narrator began.

"Thailand has the fittest men I have ever seen." Said Zane.

The phone was silent, and as the "documentary", that Zane now decided he was SO going to watch began officially, he couldn't help but smile.

"What the fuck are you on about?" Lukas reply was so late that Zane forgot he was still on the phone to him.

"Ladyboys, duh! There's this documentary thing on them. They look like women." And they did, so much that it scared Zane and aroused him at the same time. Only slightly though.

"And you're watching it right now?"

"Well, yeah."

"What is it with you and transvestites?"

"You'll be thinking the exact same thing as me when you get here."

"I'm sorely tempted to go home."

"You love me too much. Come on over I've got popcorn and we can question our masculinity over watching this."

Lukas sighed and Zane could see the guy hitting his head against the steering wheel, or something to that effect.

"I'm coming over. And when I do that show is getting turned off."

"It ain't."

"I'm not coming over there to watch you get a boner over a bunch of trans"

"Ladyboys. You know they do count themselves as women."

"I'm not even going to begin arguing with you Crusade. Just don't go anywhere okay."

"I'm not moving anywhere." '_Wow, they actually look like women? Dezone is gonna be so pissed.' _

Even though the show was begging to be watched he poked through the channels once more, coming across a black and white movie, familiar actors long since dead talked on the screen bringing a familiarity and a warm smile.

"How about we watch Roman Holiday instead?" he suggested across the phone.

"Is that the one with Audrey Hepburn?"

"Yep."

"Fuck yeah."

* * *

3, 2, 1.

Jason kicked down the door, boot hitting right by the handle, and ran into the room, Dom on his heels, stepping out to his friends left.

'_The final room_.'

They darted their weapons side to side, silence filled around them apart from the sound of the rubber under their feet.

Torch light darted in the distance and as far as they could see the whole place was empty of people.

"Soldier, we've hit the mark it's an empty casket in here. Over" Said Jason.

"Roger. Coming through now. Over and Out."

The two mercenaries walked further in, guns still raised, making sure to keep the same distance away from each other.

When Dante followed he watched them head further down, this room was larger than the last, metal floors and walls, holding in a cold stillness in the air. The place was set up like a make shift hospital, medical bed and monitoring equipment. The beds themselves were on their sides, a few standing tall at the far end, some of the screens suffered a similar fate, some completely destroyed, stepped on, ripped apart, while others flashed red in standby.

As they had entered something turned on with a click, a running fan that had seen better days clacked and scratched inside its generator by the door, taking a few moments before it quietened down. Ceiling lights, running in tow lines down the whole room flicked into life, as they did some popped and died.

As he stepped further in, glass cracked under his feet, he felt wires tangle around his boots making him curse. Hopping to shaking them off and succeeding to only stumble into more, he watched as Dom and Jason were both stepping with high foot rises, stepping them straight down as quietly as they could. He copied them, once he managed to pull a power cable out of its socket.

The place was empty, but Dante felt the need to curl in on himself, to move out of the way, as if he was walking through a crowd of people coming towards him.

"Way too quiet in here." Muttered Jason.

Dom nodded in agreement, swinging his gun to the left, a door was in front of him, similar to the one the just opened. He reached over to it and pushed.

Clicks came from the other side; the sound of safety's coming off.

"Soldier, I'm opening a door."

"Right in front of us?" asked Carter.

"Well if it your safety I've heard just come off then yeah." Laughed Dom.

"It's us then."

Dom pushed harder on the door, Jason having heard steps up behind him gun still raised just in case.

The door opens fully, the shine of torches from the three on the other side hits Dom and Jason in the face, both men squint under the light.

"Sorry." Carter apologised, turning off his light. Alex and JD followed suit.

The members of the Alpha team stepped in, Carter towering over Dom as he passed.

"You guys alright?" asked Carter.

"We're fine, just dropped four more of those tanks." Said Jason motioning back into the other room.

Carter followed his gaze, mouth turning down as he saw the remains of the last two monsters near the door.

"Grenade numbers?" he asked.

"We're both dry." Said Jason.

"Right, if we come across any JD you're up."

JD, who'd followed directly behind Alex turned to Carter at the sound of his name.

"Huh?" Clearly he hadn't been paying attention.

Carter sighed, pointing over to the door, "We come across any more of them you throw what grenades you have. got it?"

"Oh? Oh yeah! Sure. Whatever man." JD's eyes darted over to the monsters, widening in realisation on the shear size of them. "No way, how big are those things?" he began to walk towards them.

"Right, Jason I want you, Dante and Dom to check the computers, look for anything that tells us what happened down here." Dante watched as Alex reached over to snatch at the back of JD's hoodie pulling him back to the group. "Alex and I will stand on guard. And JD." Cursing at his fellow Eastern European JD snapped to attention when Carter turned to him.

"Yes?"

"Don't_ touch_ anything." Carter warned, the older man staring straight at him.

JD gave a weak salute before walking off the rest of Cat-6 moving to complete their selected jobs. Dante followed Dom and Jason to a bunch of desktop computers and laptops. Hole in the screens and towers left only three remaining out of what could've been over a dozen – all left shoved into a corner of the room.

Jason and Dom allowed their guns to fall out of their hands, before taking them off from the straps, Dom settled himself at a computer pulling over a steel fold up chair to sit on. Dante watched as Jason sat himself down on the ground with a groan, cracking his neck. He took hold of one of the closed laptops and placed it to one side, hands reaching out to figure out the mess of wires and hardware on the floor.

Dom tapped on the power button, Dante came up the back of him, resting on hand on the chairs support.

"What we looking for?" he asked.

"Files, reports, emails, anything that can tell us what was going on in here." Answered Dom. "I mean, for something that requested a lot of outside protection, doesn't look like much was actually going on in here."

Dante took another quick glance around the room, Dom was right, it just looked like an abandoned asylum ward, the smell of demons from earlier had completely disappeared since he got out of Limbo and everything seemed so… empty.

Like something that used to be here had been ripped out in it's entirety and all that was left was a hollow space.

He spotted as Alex and Carter spoke near the door they had just come from, hushed tones and silent glances back up the corridor. JD was keeping to himself, bouncing on his feet, hands deep in his pockets. He spotted Dante looking his way and gave him a smile. Dante quickly looked away.

"Didn't your demon buddy say that there was a Hell Gate down here?" asked Jason, whacking the side of a monitor when it failed to come alive.

"Erm, yeah." Answered Dante, squinting as the screen on Doms computer turned white.

"Wouldn't a Hell Gate be pumping out demons every five seconds?"

"I'm not sure, Mundus's Hell Gate provided him with power but nothing come out."

"So it was just a giant wire connection his power to him. What else can a Hell Gate do?"

Dante shrugged, watching as Dom pulled up the desktop.

"Hey Alex." Jason leaned over to see past Dante's leg's, "What does a Hell Gate do? You know, if it's just sat around."

"I am not your encyclopaedia for demonology." Behind him Carter held back a smile.

"Just answer the damn question."

Alex shrugged. "Not sure. Ask someone else." He turned back to Carter resuming their discussion.

"Wasn't there supposed to be a city down here?" asked Dante, remember back to the brief Jason and Carter had given him when he first showed up at the house. "like some old ruins?"

Dom nodded. "Yeah, and on top of bad info we're just as confused as you are."

"Obviously not voicing it." Jason sighed. "Get used to being given crap details Dante, it's gonna happen a lot in this line of work. You think the internet would work down here?"

"Doubt it." Said Dom.

"A phone?"

"Again. Doubt it."

Jason groaned, the computer he'd been working on died with a blue screen and he kicked it away, managing to break more devices behind it.

Dante pulled out his phone looking down at the time. 18:54.

Thankfully it was the same day, and even though they had stopped for a lunch break at about 2 Dante was feeling the hunger set in.

He looked up at the top of the screen, noticing the four white bars.

"I've got full signal down here." He said unsure of whether he was seeing it right under the lacklustre lighting.

Dom looked up at him, fingers poised over the keyboard.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah." He showed Dom his screen.

"You do. Hey Jason, Dante's phone looks like it might work."

Jason looked up. "You with demonic phones for you or something?"

Dom broke into a chuckle, understanding the reference.

"Try calling someone." Jason suggested.

"Preferably someone who can give us an idea of whether or not we should be worried about the Hell Gate." Dom opened up a localised email programme, watching as it opened up into a draft.

"Yeah cause Alex is so useful as our Demonology guy." Said Jason

"I never took on job as demon expert." Jason rolled his eyes at the Russian man's answer.

Dante unlocked the phone, looking down at his conversation with Kat earlier on that day, he quickly thought about texting her, asking if she was alright. A few taps later and he brought the phone to his ear.

Somehow it connected to a line after a few moments of silence, Dante waited the five rings until the receiver picked up.

"Hello?" the line was bad, filtered and cracked but Dante could still hear.

"Hey it's me." Said Dante.

"Dante? What? Whose number are you using?"

"My own."

"Right." Zane pulled away his phone as he spoke, probably to look at the caller ID again. "Is something wrong?"

"No, well," '_not for the moment anyway_.' "No. it's just we're here at the target site and it's supposed to be some old underground city but everything looking like some scene from some bad horror movie and we're a little confused."

"and there's supposed to be a Hell Gate." Whispered Dom.

"and we're sitting on top of a Hell Gate." Repeated Dante.

"Are you all there?"

"Yeah."

"Put me on speaker." Zane ordered.

Jason called the other three over and everyone gathered around the phone.

"You lot hear me?" asked Zane.

"We hear you." Answered Carter.

"Good. Right, Hell Gates are a pain in the arse, and I for one would suggest you grab your info and get out ASAP but I assume that as you've been getting further towards the Hell gate things have been closing up behind you, passages disappearing or collapsing, doors locking shut that sort of thing."

"Yeah, all the doors locked shut. We're thinking about blowing our way out" Said Carter.

"Don't bother. What you're seeing right now isn't what's down there. Your first piece of information on the area is probably right, the whole place is an underground city, but that's now trapped in Limbo. What you're seeing is probably the distortion created by the scientists and mercs that would've been created in Limbo when they arrived, but, due to the Hell Gate it has been flipped with the city."

"So you're saying that we're in Limbo."

"No. I'm saying that whatever was in Limbo and real world have swapped places. It's a mind thing, the Hell Gate isn't just a giant set of pearly white gates that let's anything through, it's a system. If you're near a Hell gate and you want the world around you to turn into some Live Aid concert set up it'll do it for you, if you want ultimate power it'll throw a ton of demons through. What I'm guessing is that the scientist crew wanted a stable and working environment rather than some dirty old city and so the Hell Gate created that world in Limbo and physically swapped it with what was already there."

"And the city is in Limbo." Supplied Dom.

"Yes. And sadly that's the only way you're going to get back out of there."

"But how did the scientist get out? They had a base camp up top and they were swapping guys every few weeks." asked Jason.

"It's likely that the Hell Gate supplied them some sort of short cut way to get to and from the place you're in now, unlike the longer way you've had to go. The Hell Gate supplied their needs and didn't care for you when you showed up, and so has been locking everything up behind you."

"That's just great." Sarcasm seemed to work for Jason, still head down to the laptop. "How we supposed to get into Limbo and out of here then?"

"Well if I had come with it'll be easy enough but I'm not. Dante have you had a demon or anything bother you?"

"Yeah. Something called Jester."

"Jester? That purple paedophile with a squeaky voice and bad breath?"

"Er, yeah."

"He's probably watching you right now, call him out when you're done he'll throw you into Limbo."

"And how do we get out of Limbo?" asked Jason.

"I'll get you out, seeing as Jester already knows that you know me. When you're in the city look for something that's out of place."

"That's so not helpful" muttered Jason, earning him a stern look from Carter.

"So we get this Jester guy to give us a hand and then we can get out yes?" said Carter.

"There's a twenty percent chance that I may not be able to find your Limbo but I'll do my best."

"That's all that we can ask for." Said Dom.

"I'll get to work then." With that Zane hung up, Dante pocketed the phone. The others returned to their previous duties, JD and Alex stepping away back towards the corridor with the monster in.

"Got anything you two?" asked Carter.

"A few things, conversations on the tests that they ran and the like. Seems to me they weren't working on looking at the city." Dom, pulled all the emails off into a folder, popping in a portable hard drive given to him by Jason.

"And what were they doing?" asked Carter.

"Experimenting on demons" Jason lifted up the laptop and handed it to Carter, the older man took it by its base allowing Jason to stand. " Looks to me that they knew exactly what Dante's friend there did, crossing Limbo over to here by using the hell gate allowed a few low level demons to cross too-"

"What sort of demons?" inquired Alex.

Jason looked over to the man. "Chimera seeds and Lesser Stygains."

Dante recognised the Stygians, the doll like demons he encountered back in Limbo City everywhere he went. They reeked of petrol and oozed out a black liquid that when stuck to the skin, would burn at flesh and dissolve muscle straight to the bone, numbing the process to allow it to work all the way through. Numerous times Dante had suddenly found himself with a hole in his arm or leg.

"What's a Chimera seed?" he asked, unsure if he had ever encountered one before. The name did seem familiar somehow, probably some demon name he remembers faintly when being forced by that aggravating half angel _fiend_ to read up on his demonology with Kat.

That was Kat's job, his job was to kill the demons.

Which he's been doing very little of recently.

"It's a parasitic demon, born from a female serpent demon mostly; they look like a pair of arms with a weird version of Cousin Itt growing between them." Jason noticed Dante's blank expression. He sighed. "Basically fuck ass weird and hairy. Anyway, seems they were looking at a way to use the Chimera seeds ability to control the host to find a way to control the demons themselves, if they tried recreating the drug the chimera puts into the demons, and that failed miserably. I'm jus reading through a section on their attempts to control the Chimera seeds themselves, putting in human DNA before they are born, that sort of thing."

"So they're trying to find a way to control the demons." Concluded Carter, handing back the laptop. Jason took it with eager hands settling himself back on the floor amongst the organised mess he has made. "But that doesn't explain what happened to the science team."

"We'll keep looking sir." Said Dom, getting back to work.

"Get to it then."

* * *

It took some time to finally work through everything, Jason and Dom threw around ideas and theories like they were at some group project work and concluded in an agreement of their findings, in a series of half sentences. Dante left them to their devices, figuring that his attempted curiosity will only strive to make time go by quicker but will end up them hanging around longer than required.

He took to the awkward silence that hung around the room, awkward in that no one spoke other than the two computer nerds working away next to him. Alex was as impasse as ever, watching the dead bodies of the monsters (now dubbed "Titans" by JD) as if they were going to reanimate and come charging at them. Dante felt him seemingly tense up when JD mentioned if they were likely to encounter more, not in a fearful way but of a precaution, that JD words would just bring them bad luck.

More so than they had already.

Other than the spoken thought JD kept to himself, looking back at Carter every now and then like a beaten child, Dante could only assume that JD had sticky fingers – not taken lightly by the ex-US soldier- or he had a hazardous habit of touching things that made everything possible that could go wrong occur. Whatever the reason, JD was strangely quiet, then again with Jason working away everyone knew that he did speak he'd be completely ignored.

Carter was watching the group from his position by the door, the one he had come through earlier on with JD and Alex, a watchful eye over the five men under his charge. Dante didn't really know if the man was scrutinising them all or lost in another world, his stern face seemed to stick to him and he had begun this light tapping of his foot a while ago, a habit Dante could only assume was a show of a lack of patience, or stress.

A few minutes after losing the call Dante had received a text from Zane, the half angel had kept true to his words and had somehow managed to link his created Limbo world to that of Ferris Fields. Although supposedly now owing Zane a favour all Dante now had to do was find Jester, although he too now had the feeling that the demon was watching them, and find a pair of spears that will be within Limbo. The direct link to Zane's own Limbo that will get them a one-way ticket straight into Alderidge City.

Seemed easy enough in theory.

Dom and Jason finished with a flurry of closing down the computers they had set up and pulling out memory drives, stuffing the devices into their pockets and grabbing their weapons.

At their movements, Carter nodded to Dante, the go ahead to get them into Limbo.

Dante had no idea how to gain the demons attention, seeing as the demon was always the one dropping in on him beforehand.

"Hey," he said to the air, hoping the demon was around. "We need you down here, where ever the hell you are. Get us into Limbo."

"My, my aren't you rude? Didn't your mommy teach you any manners?" The demons voice echoed around the room, but held the strange sound that reminded Dante of how Kat sounded when he would talk to her from Limbo.

Dante sighed. "Just get down here and take us into Limbo."

"And what do I get out of doing this? You do know that if anyone finds out that I helped a bunch of humans they'll kill me." The demon laughed, that annoying pitched laugh that even made Alex twitch in annoyance.

"What do you want?" It wasn't his idea to reason with the demon, he just wanted to shoot the damn thing in the head and get it all over with.

"Something worthwhile, something shiny… Ohh maybe your mommys amulet!"

"No. no way are you taking this." Dante felt his hand reach up to his amulet, checking that the demon hadn't already taken it.

"Oh, well. It seems I won't be able to help you then." The demon laughed again, it's echo increasing, telling them all that it was leaving, where ever it was.

"Wait." Alex stepped up, looking around the room expecting the demon to show its face. "Would this suffice demon?"

"Ohhh shiny… What is it?"

"My wedding ring, I believe it is something worthwhile and shiny. Is it acceptable?"

Silence.

"Hmmm. Not as pretty as that Nephilim's amulet but it'll have to do." Suddenly the ring was gone, thrown out of Alex's hand by an unseen wind into one of the darkened areas of the room. "Where do you want going again?" the demon sighed.

"Limbo" said Dante.

"Very well" the demon, Jester, sounded bored, as if the fun had just been drained out of him.

Dante didn't have much time to think about it though, because the next thing he knew he, along with CAT-6, were being dragged into Limbo. The walls and floors broke underneath their feet, a surging heat from limbos fiery pool rushed up through the gaps and filled the air with a heavy drowning musk of demons. The place burned around them and the world rearranged itself, light flashed their ears popped and a headache buried deep within them that when they opened their eye they found themselves standing in the middle of a road. Broken into interlocking lines of fissures and pits, buildings that could be no older than a century, decayed under the red orange darkness that filled up Limbo. Signs rusted, doors and windows broken and as the world fixed itself around them, a clock tower built to the East, a ale house just further down from them. Demons, more demons than Dante could count surge up from out of the pits, falling hard to the group around them. Dante cursed, and as Rebellion appeared behind him and the weapons of CAT-6 clicked behind him he swore that he'll kill that damn Jester when he sees him next.

* * *

reviews are appreciated, and very helpful. Thanks for reading this far anyway.


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